CAIRO: Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), Egypt's biggest listed company, said on Monday it would redeem bonds worth LE 1.65 billion ($274 million) early as part of a debt refinancing package for its fully-owned fertilizer subsidiaries. OCI announced in October that the fertilizers group had arranged $1.9 billion in credit facilities with international and local banks. It said it had also raised $200 million in financing from the World Bank. "By raising offshore debt and settling local debt, our balance sheet will benefit from interest expense savings related to the large interest differential between the Egyptian pound and the US dollar," OCI said in an emailed press release. OCI in late 2010 sold LE 1.65 billion in five-year bonds with an interest rate of 11.75 percent. The company said it would spend about $300 million to buy Egyptian pounds on the local market to help it pay for the redemption. The group said in October it also planned to use its new credit facilities to separate its fertilizer and construction businesses into two legal entities under a single holding company.
