Credit Agricole Egypt is preparing to comply with the country’s new banking law in case it was approved, and will increase its capital to EGP 5bn, in accordance with the draft law, the bank’s managing director Pierre Venas.
In a press conference held on Wednesday, Venas pointed out that the parent group in France is fully aware of the importance of the Egyptian market.
“Credit Agricole strongly supports its expansions in Egypt,” he added, noting that the group has granted the bank in Egypt a EGP 230m loan in two years to support its capital base and activities in Egypt.
He added that Credit Agricole Egypt has cooperated with the parent group to arrange two loans for the General Petroleum Corporation (GPC) worth $430m, of which one is worth $350m for a duration of 10 years. This stresses the confidence of the group in the future of the Egyptian economy. Another loan was also arranged in the food sector.
Venas pointed out that the volume of foreign investments in Egypt is estimated to be €5bn, and that Egypt is now more capable of bringing foreign investments in general, and French investments specifically.
He pointed out that the market still awaits further improvement in the economy, hence, more reductions in interest rates to inject more investments.
Wali Lotfy, head of retail banking and microfinance at Credit Agricole Egypt, said that the bank has entered the Egyptian market to stay and expand and does not think of leaving it at all.
Lotfy revealed that the current volume of bank’s deposits is EGP 22bn, including EGP 6bn for SMEs.
He added that the size of the retail banking portfolio is EGP 7bn, while the portfolio of SMEs loans reached EGP 2bn, an equivalent of 10% of the total loan portfolios in the bank. He stressed that the bank plans to take the percentage to the 20% decided by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) by 2020.
