The Egyptian Arab Land Bank (EALB) targets to inject EGP 500 million to its individual loans portfolio, raising it to EGP 1.5 billion, compared to EGP one billion at the end of the last fiscal year, said Abdel Megid Mohy El-Din, deputy chairman of EALB. EALB targets to set up a department for foreign transactions in order to conduct foreign transactions such as issuing letters of credit and letters of guarantee with the help of its branches in Jordan and Palestine. The bank plans to settle bad debts worth EGP one billion after settling bad debts of EGP 800 million in the last fiscal year; most prominently the bad debts worth EGP 125 million owed by the businessman Magdi Yacoub. The bank has set a strategy in the upcoming period to decrease the real estate assets portfolio valued at EGP 2.3 billion, transferred to the bank after conducting debt settlements with delinquent customers. The Central Bank of Egypt does not allow a bank to keep the real estate assets for more than five years. In addition, the ownership of new real estate assets will be transferred to the bank after settling new bad debts. Disposing of real estate assets will be through establishing a real estate asset management company or partnering with public-sector companies such as the Arab Contractors and Rolin Construction Company to develop these assets before being sold.
