The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) is in talks with unnamed Gulf banks for a EUR 300 mn loan to finance its agreement with Dutch Royal IHC to purchase two dredgers, three separate sources tell Reuters’ Arabic service. A consortium made up of CIB, the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, and the Arab African International Bank had offered to provide the SCA with the loan earlier this year, but banking sources had said at the time that the SCA was likely to borrow from international institutions that offered better rates and repayment conditions. Separately, the SCA signed yesterday a cooperation protocol with Agility Kuwait to establish a logistics zone in the East Port Said Port, according to a statement. Feasibility studies will take around eight months to complete.