The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) reached a debt settlement with a contracting firm this week, Executive board member Yehia Aboul Fotouh told Amwal Al Ghad Tuesday. The company's debts are estimated at EGP 50 million (US$ 6.5million) According to the settlement, the firm has to pay 80% of debts' volume in cash, Aboul Fotouh added. NBE has agreed on delaying installments of clients working in tourism field whose total debts worth EGP 200 million. Upon the agreement, the debts shall be scheduled in the next six months this year or the clients shall pay two installments in one payment, Aboul Fotouh stated. On other side, NBE is currently studying pumping EGP 350 million to finance a client working in tourism sector to launch new hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh encompassing 650 rooms, the board member said. Sharm el-Sheikh is located 383 kilometers (238 miles) from Cairo. Moreover, Aboul Fotouh said that the National Bank aims to shrink its non-performing debts portfolio to EGP 6 billion at the end of current fiscal year opposed to EGP 6.4 billion at the end of March 2015.
