Misr Italia Properties has inked a middle-term loan worth EGP 650 mn, coming as part of a bank consortium led by the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Invest-Gate reports.

NBE will extend financing worth EGP 300 mn, while the Egyptian Gulf Bank (EGBank) and the Arab Investment Bank (aiBank) will provide EGP 260 mn and EGP 90 mn, respectively, according to a bourse filing by NBE.

Mohamed El Assal, CEO and managing director of Misr Italia, stated that the loan is aimed at financing part of the investment cost of its fully-integrated business hub in New Cairo, or “Cairo Business Park.”

He indicated that the 78,000-square-meter project boasts a modern business area that consists of 42 administrative and commercial buildings, 15 of which to be delivered by year-end. This comes in addition to a four-star 144-room hotel, assigned to Hilton Hotels and Resorts to be as part of the Hilton Gardens chain.

Cairo Business Park is designed in compliance with international standards, through which the company aims to offer its clients a high-quality product, El Assal highlighted.

Sherif Riyadh, head of the corporate and syndication group at NBE, said that the two-tranch loan extends over seven years. The first tranche amounts to EGP 530 mn to finance the construction of Misr Italia’s administrative and commercial buildings, and the other  EGP 120 mn tranch is dedicated to the hotel’s construction.

On his part, Hisham Okasha, CEO of NBE, noted that the lending comes as a support to the Egyptian real estate sector, in light of the state’s interest in offering more investment opportunities within the industry and addressing the property developers’ needs to further prosper.

Okasha also affirmed the significance of the real estate sector for benefitting other industries, namely in the provision of construction and building materials.