Victor Fakhry, a board member of Dice Ready-Made Garments, revealed an initial agreement with four banks to borrow EGP 90m. The banks are CIB, QNB, and the Egyptian-Arab Land Bank (EALB).
The purpose of the borrowing is to finance the acquisition deal over Cairo Cotton in a deal worth EGP 140m. Dice will self-fund the remaining EGP 50m.
Fakhry said that the implementation of the deal is currently awaiting the completion of due diligence. He expected its completion and signing the financing contracts with the four banks in September, and then the implementation of the deal.
The acquisition of Cairo Cotton and its asset utilisation of 100%, compared to 35% previously, is expected to create a strong leap in Dice’s production capacity, allowing it to achieve greater profitability.
It is noteworthy that in October 2017, Dice rented a Cairo Cotton factory for a period of three years, with a rental value of EGP 250,000, rising to EGP 350,000 after six months from the date of commencement of the lease.
On the other hand, Fakhry said that his company continues its expansion plans in the branches. In the first half of this year, it managed to add 35 new branches, bringing the total number of branches to 216, with expectations for the number of branches to reach 230 before the end of 2019.
He explained that the company will continue to expand its main export markets currently in Europe and America to achieve growth in its export sales, which in 2018, amounted to EGP 58m.
The company’s sales during the first three months of this year increased to record about EGP 338.37m at the end of March, compared to EGP 314.23m during the same period last year.
Dice said in a statement to the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) yesterday that the board of directors approved the increase of the issued capital of the company from EGP 53m to EGP 106m, an increase of EGP 53m, with a free share for each share of the profits distributed on 265m shares.
