Egypt's Orascom Construction signed on Monday a deal to build the Housing and Development Bank's (HDB) headquarters in the country's new administrative capital, 45km (28 miles) east of Cairo. The deal was signed by the bank's managing director Hassan Ghanem and Orascom's chairman and managing director Osama Beshay. The headquarters will cost more than 5 billion Egyptian pounds ($307.1 million), the bank's chairman Fathy Sebaey announced on Monday. “The new headquarter will have a positive impact on the bank's activities, thus increasing its revenues and profits,” Sebaey said, adding that the building will be also equipped with the latest technology, and will include, in addition to the bank departments, an electronic archive centre for all bank documents. Furthermore, Sebaey stressed that the NAC will be an important administrative and commercial centre, and its investment will have a great positive return. Deputy Chairperson and Managing Director of the bank, Hassan Ghanem, said that the building will include branch of the bank alongside the administrations for the headquarters. He stresses that the bank is looking to be in the NAC- the epitome of urban development. Ghanem pointed out the possibility of the HDB to provide real estate financing for customers wishing to move to the NAC, both inside and outside the initiative of the Central Bank of Egypt for mortgage finance. The bank's President's Deputy for Engineering and Investment Affairs, Mohamed El-Alfy, said the building is located in an area of 9,843 square metres, with a cost of 636 million pounds. The building will be completed within 18 months. Source: Daily news
