The Egyptian Electricity Company (EEHC) has closed a US$525mn syndicated loan with nine banks, for the import of gas turbines from Canada.

The five-year facility was arranged by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) as mandated lead arranger and initial lender. It was partly funded through the bank’s export credit agencies loans facilitation programme, under which Afreximbank received a five-year line of credit from Export Development Canada in November 2012 to fund the purchase of Canadian goods.

The syndicate also includes National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Commercial International Bank, Arab African International Bank, Audi Bank, Alex Bank, Arab Banking Corporation and Egyptian Gulf Bank.

The gas turbines and other related equipment will be imported from General Electrics in Canada, as part of Egypt’s emergency power plan.

Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank, says:  “This facility brings our support to the Egyptian economy to more than US$1.9bn of aggregate financing since the inception of the bank in 1993.”