EXCLUSIVE- In other debt news, don’t expect Egypt’s sovereign debt to be “Euroclearable” for at least another year: Egypt expects to meet the terms and conditions to allow its local debt issuances to be cleared with Euroclear in a year’s time, Mohamed Hegazy, head of the Finance Ministry’s debt management unit, told us. Progress is being made to meet the terms and conditions of the agreement signed with the clearing house in 2019, but the process itself is lengthy and proceedings were slowed down by the covid-19 pandemic, Hegazy said. Hegazy didn’t specify what the terms Egypt needs to meet are, noting only that they span many areas, including “technical, logistical, and administrative.”

BACKGROUND: The move is designed to make Egyptian debt more accessible to foreign investors, who can currently only access the debt market through a few local banks licensed to operate as primary dealers.