MIDOR looks to Afreximbank, ADIB for USD 200 mn loan to finance refinery expansions: The state-owned MIDOR is reportedly in talks with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) for a USD 200 mn loan to help finance expansion plans at the company’s refinery, banking sources tell Al Shorouk. MIDOR, which we think is in line to sell additional equity in the first phase of the government’s privatization program, had secured a USD 1.2 bn loan from France’s Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas, and Italy’s CDP in 2016 to finance the USD 2.2 bn project, which will expand its refining capacity to 175k barrels of crude per day from a current 115k barrels. The project is being developed by Italy’s Technip, which signed had signed a USD 1.7 bn agreement with MIDOR in June. Afreximbank had said last week that it pledged USD 3 bn in new financing to Egyptian companies.

On a related note, Afreximbank has been tapped to conduct studies on Egypt’s joint investment fund with Sudan and Ethiopia, Executive Vice President Amr Kamel tells Al Mal. We had been expecting the fund, which is meant to finance infrastructure projects, earlier this month. The idea for the fund came into existence back in January when officials from the three countries agreed to begin resolving a gridlock they had reached last year when Ethiopia and Sudan refused to ratify the results of an environmental impact study concluding that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam would be detrimental for Egypt’s Nile water supply.