Banque Du Caire has given an initial approval to contribute with EGP 350 million to the loan destined to be offered to Al-Futtaim Commercial & Administrative Centers SAE Company, sources said. HSBC Bank, the loan lead arranger, is currently asking other banks to contribute to the loan. These banks conditioned on the company having the final settlement agreement concerning resolving the company's problems with the government, sources added. Banque Du Caire, Commercial International Bank (CIB), Arab African International Bank (AAIB) and Arab Bank are arranging a loan worth EGP 2 billion to finance the construction of a new commercial center in New Cairo as part of Cairo Festival City project that is executed by Al-Futtaim Group. Sources expected the Company to get the loan by the end of next August after being postponed in the last period because of the disputes over the land ownership as an appeal was raised against the land sale agreement. The Company will sign the final settlement agreement with the government after paying EGP 400 million, the price difference. Festival Center will be established on an area of 298,000 m2 with investment cost estimated at EGP 4.3 billion. The center will compromise the most famous restaurants, brands and stores in addition to a large cinema complex. The company has injected EGP 1.5 billion to resume the construction of the project which is destined to be ended by 2013. Two loan arrangers retreated from the consortium in the last period because of the disputes over the land ownership, in addition to the recession the real estate market witnessed in the last period, sources noted. Cairo Festival City is being established on an area of 3 million meters with investment cost between EGP 15 billion and EGP 20 billion and is destined to be launched in 2018.
