The Egyptian Fertiliser Company, owned by Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), signed agreements for loans worth $380m and EGP 1.12bn on Thursday.

Sources told Daily News Egypt that the loans aim to reconstruct financial debts that are due in October 2019. The company will also use the loans to restructure its balance sheet and to finance expansions that will increase its competitiveness.

The company had borrowed about $1bn four years ago from a banking alliance that included the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The IFC is contributing about $100m to the new loan, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will contribute $60m, along with financing from other banks.

The loan period will extend over seven years, while the IFC tranche will extend over eight.

According to sources, the interest rate on the domestic loan tranche reaches 0.75% above the lending and discount rate of the Central Bank of Egypt, while the US dollar tranche will bear an interest of 3.75% above the USD LIBOR interest rate.

The Egyptian Fertiliser Company’s factory, located at Ain Sokhna Port, has a capacity of 1.65m metric tonnes of urea per year through two production lines. The plant also includes a mixing unit with a capacity of 325,000 metric tonnes of ammonium nitrate per year.