A governmental source said that seven Egyptian legal offices applied to act as local legal advisers for the US dollar bonds through the Ministry of Finance. The source added that the same offices applied for the first tender which offered $1.5bn bonds earlier. The most prominent firms in the previous tender were Helmy and Hamza Law Office, Matouk and Bassiouny, Zaki Hashem & Partners, and Sarie El-Din and Partners, among others. The source pointed out that the technical presentations were examined Tuesday and that they will choose between three offices. The source expects the examination of the financial bids to occur after the technical examination of both the domestic and international lawyers. The examination of the investment banks is expected to occur within 10 days, after which the winners will be announced. Egypt plans to offer bonds worth $3bn in the international markets to finance the economic reform programme that is being discussed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a three-year period. The programme requires total finances of $21bn from different global institutions. The government plans to approach international markets in September or October, to ease the pressure on domestic financing resources. The domestic debt increased to 83% of the gross domestic product, and the high interest prices on the domestic borrowing rates range from 14% for short-term tools to 17% in long-term tools. The Ministry of Finance will open the offices' technical envelopes offering their legal consultations to the issuing process Wednesday. The winners will be announced later this week.
