The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) postponed offering international bonds, which were to be issued at the end of July, according to an NBE source who spoke to Daily News Egypt, Tuesday.
The source said the reason behind this was the current instability of the international stock markets due to the Greek crisis, which dictates it is not the right time to launch these bonds.
He added that the NBE is keen to attract investors for these bonds from the international markets, by applying the lowest interest rate possible. This may happen in the next period with the opening of the New Suez Canal, especially since there is great hope for the Egyptian economy to rise in the future. As a result, this will positively affect the pricing of the bonds that the bank intends to offer.
In August 2010, the NBE issued bonds valued at $600m and with interest rates of 5.25%. In this regard, the source said the NBE aims to offer the new bonds at lower prices.
Last June, the NBE selected CitiBank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and Standard Chartered to organise issuing the standard bonds supported by the US dollar. The bank did not, however, specify the value of the segment.
According to the source, the bank will repay on Wednesday the full $600m in bonds from August 2010, and will withdraw these amounts from its external accounts. This act confirms that the bank is committed to meeting its external responsibilities on time.
