CAIRO: State-owned Banque Misr has launched sober negotiations with Vodafone Egypt on a LE 2 billion loan ($350 million) to finance the company s license for 3G services obtained last week for LE 3.34 billion.
A senior official at the bank said the bank was examining the proposal to finance the company s efforts, including other scenarios to set up an alliance with other banks for the deal.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Commercial International Bank in Egypt Hisham Ezz El-Arab confirmed his bank s intentions to compete over the deal with Vodafone Egypt.
Analysts expect that local banks will engage in fierce competition over deals to finance mobile operations applications for 3G licenses, citing the high value of loans and financial capacities of Vodafone Egypt. They ascribe fierce competition to the need at Egyptian banks to invest their excess liquidity as a result of the wide gap between deposits and loans.
Vodafone Egypt paid on Saturday a sum of LE 240 million to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority as part of its LE 3.3 billion deal to obtain a 3G license.
Vodafone Egypt has obtained the license for a period of 15 years, while Mobinil has engaged in negotiations with NTRA for a similar deal.
