NOOZZ CAIRO: Egyptian Housing and Development Bank will sign a tripartite protocol with the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr on financing the national scheme for housing with £2 billion (LE 22 billion). The initiative comes in line with the Egyptian President's election promises to provide low-income groups with adequate housing. The HDB has announced in a statement to the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges on Sunday that it will allocate about £400 million (LE 4.4 billion) of funds for the scheme. The bank said it had signed a housing cooperation agreement with the Governorate of Fayoum to construct around 2,016 housing units in the province and would sign similar agreements with Al-Menia and Sohag governorates for 984 and 480 units respectively. The statement pointed out that HDB board members have agreed to set up a new private equity fund for real estate investment with a capital of £200 million (LE 2.2 million). "The bank is taking the necessary steps to obtain approvals for the new fund and present the scheme to board members for final approval on launching the fund, the statement says. The HDB has recently increased its authorized capital to £1 billion (LE 11 million) from £300 million (LE 3.2 billion) and its paid-in capital to £500 million (LE 5.5 billion) in line with the CBE requirements.
