Three major banks in Egypt will be arranging a multi-million Egyptian pound syndicated loan in favour of the state-owned East Delta Electricity Production Company (EDEPCO). The National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Commercial International Bank (CIB), and QNB AlAhly have agreed to provide EDEPCO with a syndicated loan worth 750 million Egyptian pounds (US$98.3 million). The three banks are expected to disburse the first tranche of the loan within days, banking sources near from the talks told Amwal Al Ghad on Thursday. Banque Misr has withdrawn from the EDEPCO-loan banking consortium, the sourced noted. Therefore, NBE's participation in the loan surged up to 450 million pounds, while CIB and QNB would cover the remaining share of financing (300 million pounds). The loan will be paid within 8 years with a two-year grace period. Part of the financing will support EDEPCO's needs to convert the existing open cycle in Shabab and West Damietta power stations to combined cycle gas system. The initial investment cost of the conversion to combined cycle system project amounts to 6.125 billion pounds. Two steam turbines will be attached to Shabab plant and one steam turbine to the West Damietta plant. The turbines, which each have a 250MW capacity, will operate through energy recovery boilers.
