National Bank of Egypt, the country’s largest lender, plans to sell its first international bonds and is meeting with fixed-income investors, according to three people familiar with the plan.
The Cairo-based bank may offer a benchmark-sized issue, said a banker, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t yet set. A benchmark offering is usually $500 million or more. Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG are organizing the meetings, according to the banker and an investor attending the roadshow.
The lender received approval from Egypt’s central bank to sell as much as $1.5 billion of bonds, said a bank official, who declined to be identified. It is meeting investors in Asia, the Middle East, London, Germany and in Eastern Europe, the official said. The meetings will end on July 31.
National Bank of Egypt is seeking to sell the bonds to increase liquidity in foreign currencies and plans to use the proceeds to finance major projects, Al-Alam Al-Youm newspaper reported on May 30, without saying how it obtained the information.
