EIB plans to sign loan agreements with Egypt worth EUR 589 mn by end-2018: The European Investment Bank’s (EIB) board of directors has signed off on extending new loans to Egypt worth a combined EUR 589 mn, EIB’s North Africa and Middle East Director Flavia Palanza tells Al Mal. The loans include a EUR 214 mn facility for the Kafr El Sheikh Kitchener drainage project and another EUR 375 mn to support the country’s private sector. Palanza did not disclose further details on the latter. The bank expects to sign the agreements with Egypt before the end of 2018, according to Palanza.

Also coming from the department of large (but long term) loans: The Transport Ministry signed a EUR 243 mn loan agreement with the Export-Import Bank of Korea to finance the purchase of 32 metro cars from Hyundai Rotem, Transport Minister Hisham Arafat said, according to Al Shorouk. The loan carries a 1% interest rate and is payable over 33 years after a 20-year grace period. Egypt had signed last month an agreement with South Korea to manufacture and supply the metro cars, which will be used in the Cairo Metro Lines 3 and 4. The order makes up the second half of the 64 cars the government had planned to lock down for the new line. Hyundai Rotem was contracted last year to supply the first 32 cars under a EUR 350 mn contract. The Ministry is expected to sign soon a EUR 50 mn loan agreement with the French Development Agency (AFD) to upgrade the aging electric transmission lines and generators of the Cairo Metro Line 1, according to Amwal Al Ghad. The AFD’s board reportedly signed off on the loan, a ministry official said.