Cairo – Mubasher: National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is in talks with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for financing ranging between $500 million and $750 million.

NBE will also pump $150 million, around 20% of an international loan it signed last June with a global banking consortium, into small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), sources told Almal News.

The Arab country's largest state bank will use the remaining sum of the loan worth $600 million in corporate banking, they added.

In June, NBE had signed an agreement with a consortium headed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to obtain a $750 million loan. The consortium was comprised of HDBC Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Emirates NBD, Bank ABC, RAKBANK, and the Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD).