The Egyptian Union for Investors Associations will meet with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) within two weeks to resolve the crisis of the companies that refused to participate in the initiative launched by the CBE in February to settle the debts resulting from the currency exchange differences in the letters of credit opened before the flotation of the pound that have been fulfilled after the flotation.
Mohamed Khamis Shaaban, Secretary General of the union, said that they received requests from several companies to expedite the settlement of their debts with banks.
Shaaban did not specify the number of companies not affiliated with the initiative launched by the CBE; however, he expected their number to be lower than the companies that settled with banks over the past few months.
On Monday evening, the union held a meeting with its members to discuss the impact of the decision to raise the interest rate on the industrial sector and mechanisms to solve the crisis of companies that are not part of the CBE initiative to settle foreign currency difference debts.
Shaaban explained that the meeting resulted in setting a date for the meeting with the CBE to settle the dispute, since the union addressed the bank several times to set a date for a meeting in Ramadan but received no response.
Shaaban did not disclose the demands of companies rejecting the initiative to settle their debts, but hinted that it may wish to settle, according to the dollar price in February at EGP 15.8.
Sources within the union told Daily News Egypt earlier that the companies that refused to participate in the initiative in February were willing to settle after the dollar fell from its value in February, but after the price rose to about EGP 18, they asked to join the initiative, for which the CBE set a timeline of two weeks.
At the beginning of the year, the union prepared a list of 870 companies that were affected by the crisis of currency differences in letters of credit, which pushed the CBE to launch a settlement initiative in which many companies affected took part, while others refused its terms.
The initiative includes the scheduling of corporate indebtedness resulting from currency differences (less than $5m) over a period of 2-7 years at an interest of 12%. In March, the CBE gave banks in Egypt $420m to cover all debts under $5m.
