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Italy’s export credit agency Sace has signed a €200mn framework agreement with Egyptian lender Alexbank aimed at boosting Italian exports to the North African market.

Under the agreement, Sace will issue guarantees to Alexbank when it provides financing to Egyptian SMEs that have “shown interest” in increasing their procurement from Italy, the agency says.

Sace will supply cover through its untied Push programme, which was launched in 2017 and works to increase purchases of goods and services from Italy without tying financing to specific export contracts.

The agreement “represents a step forward in the evolution of the innovative Push strategy model”, Sace says in an April 24 statement.

The ECA can provide guarantees “not only to large foreign corporates which previously had access to the instrument, but also to smaller enterprises – with the goal of creating even more export opportunities for Italian companies and fostering new connections in strategic markets such as Egypt”, it says.

Paolo Vivona, Alexbank’s chief executive, says the agreement will support the North African country’s economic development: “As Egypt’s economy continues to diversify and modernise, access to high-quality Italian technology, machinery, and expertise becomes increasingly strategic.”

In the past three years, Sace has significantly grown its untied offering, backstopping loans worth billions of dollars for various types of borrowers – commodity traders, multilateral banks and infrastructure developers.

Initially, many of the deals were aimed at securing vital resources such as natural gas for the Italian market, but the agency’s Push Strategy has since widened its remit.

Last year, Sace agreed to cover a €100mn facility for the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank and hailed it as the first Push deal for a multilateral lender. In January, the Italian ECA backed a US$3bn facility for Saudi Arabia’s futuristic Neom development.

Formerly known as the Bank of Alexandria, Alexbank is majority owned by Intesa Sanpaolo Group which acquired 80% of the bank’s shares in 2006 before later rebranding it. Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s largest bank by assets and owns subsidiaries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.