A joint credit facility to encourage Italian exports of machinery and capital goods to Egypt, through medium and long-term loans to the small and medium-sized Egyptian businesses making such purchases, has been signed.

 

The project sets itself the goal of creating a first plafond of €50mn to guarantee loans that Bank of Alexandria will disburse to small and medium-sized Egyptian businesses purchasing goods and services of Italian origin.

 

The facility will respect certain features regarding the firms financed and will offer competitive terms. As for the sharing of risk among concerned parties, Italian export credit agency (ECA) Sace and the corresponding ECA of the Egyptian government, should guarantee over half the amount, while the remainder would be the responsibility of Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo and Bank of Alexandria.

 

Intesa Sanpaolo will act as the bank agent on the Italian side, while its subsidiary, Bank of Alexandria, will play a similar role on the Egyptian side. The group’s 5,800 Italian branches and the 187 windows of its Egyptian subsidiary will guarantee the diffused nature of the service.

 

Sace, ever-more oriented toward the search for new forms of intervention in support of Italian exports, will assume the greatest share of the risk, thus facilitating the penetration of Italian firms in a growing market such as that of Egypt.

 

Promos, the Special Agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, dedicated to the international activity of small and medium-sized firms in Milan and elsewhere in Lombardy, will act as the promoter of the facility vis-vis its associates and the Italian firms involved.

 

The signing of the agreement took place within the framework of Finance Meeting 2007, a conference organised by Promos in collaboration with the Italian embassy in Egypt, which recently gathered in Cairo a group of important personalities, institutions, banks and businesses of the Mediterranean region.