Egypt’s biggest state-owned lender, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is in ongoing talks to pump US$900 million in two loans for sectors of electricity and transport, said vice chairman Mahmoud Montasser.

The Egyptian banking official told Amwal Al Ghad, on the sidelines of the Builders of Egypt 2014 Forum that kicked off on Tuesday, that the two loans are in favour of two clients in the private sector in areas of electricity and transport.

NBE’s negotiations over the two loans are still ongoing, and the bank is expecting to invite other banks to participate in the coming phase, Montasser noted.

Elsewhere, the official referred that NBE’s management was studying some investments opportunities to expand into one of the African countries, but decided to postpone.

NBE also announced Tuesday it would allocate around EGP10 billion (US$ 1.4 billion) to finance local contractor companies. The bank lending portfolio for local contractors has reached EGP 13 billion, serving around 2500 clients, he noted.