Loan To KIMA Lowered Again To US$ 423 Mln..Agreement Signing In Dec.

The National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Commercial International Bank (CIB), Banque Misr, Banque Du Caire and Arab African International Bank (AAIB), arranging a loan for the Egyptian Chemical Industries Company (KIMA), have agreed to reduce the value of the loan from US$ 444 million to US$ 423 million, sources said.

The value of the loan was earlier reduced from US$ 516 million to US$ 444 million. Such reduction came as the feasibility study of the project shows that the investment cost is less than the value of the loan. Sources said banks have also agreed to inject more funds to the company if it asks in the future.

The loan will be used to finance the renewal of KIMA’s fertilizers factory and the construction of two lines for producing Ammonia and Urea powered by natural gas in Aswan which has investment cost of US$ 787 million.

The banks’ contributions to the loan will be as follows: NBE (US$ 92 million), Banque Misr (US$ 92 million), CIB (US$ 92 million) and AAIB and Banque Du Caire (US$ 147 million). NSGB had earlier withdrawn from the consortium.

The final loan agreement will be signed before the end of 2012 as the company said it needs the finance, so the banks will meet within the next few days to agree on the final contributions to the loan.