(AFP Photo)
By Hossam Mounir
The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) will issue the dollar bonds announced previously by August, according to Karam Soliman, the NBE’s Financial Resources and External Branches Manager.
“We will hold a meeting Wednesday with representatives from international banks which are nominated to promote for the dollar bonds in the global markets, in order to discuss the offers and choose the best and take the final decision,” Soliman said.
The list of the banks includes Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and Standard Chartered.
Soliman said the value of the dollar bonds which will be issued to the International markets has not yet been completely determined, but it may be set during the meeting.
In March, the NBE’s extraordinary general meeting approved issuing dollar bonds to international markets. The bank invited 13 international financial institutions to compete, and five of them were chosen.
NBE Chairman Hisham Okasha said the aim is to diversify sources of hard currency in the bank.
It is of note that, in August 2010, the NBE issued bonds on the international markets at a value of $600m, and the interest on these bonds reached 5.25%.
On Tuesday, credit rating agency Fitch International granted the NBE’s expected dollar bonds an initial ranking at B level, with a stable futuristic view.
The agency said that the final ranking depends on the final documents conforming to information already received.
