Egyptian real estate firm SODIC is considering issuing LE 1 billion worth of bonds to help fund work on its main projects near Cairo, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
An executive confirmed the company was studying a bond issue, but said it had not taken a final decision.
Egypt’s corporate bond market is still tiny by international standards. The state has planned measures to spur the secondary bond market — a move that could encourage more corporate debt issues — but many changes are still in the works.
A report carried in the financial daily Al-Mal quoted unnamed sources as saying SODIC has approached Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) and the National Bank of Egypt to express interest in carrying out an issue.
Egypt’s third-biggest listed property developer, which builds mostly for the high end of the country’s real estate market, is trying to raise LE 1.5 billion of debt over the next two years.
The firm took out a LE 350 million bank loan in September to speed up work at its flagship Allegria residential project on Cairo’s western outskirts. In February, it completed a LE 550 million rights issue.
