Bank Audi settled corporate debts from temporary foreign currency facilities, that appreciated post EGP devaluation, according to Mohamed Fayed, Deputy Chairperson and Managing Director of the bank. Fayed said the bank had a limited number of companies with an indebtedness value of more than USD5mn, which have already been settled after several months of negotiations between the bank and the companies. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) granted banks USD420mn earlier to settle the open positions of companies carrying debts of less than USD5mn and having annual sales of EGP 500mn or less. CBE instructed banks to restructure the debt of these companies on a period of two to seven years at an interest rate of 12%. The Egyptian Union for Investors Associations estimated the total debt amount at roughly USD700mn, so the CBE allocated 60% of this debt to banks. The CBE intends to hold a new meeting with the Egyptian Union for Investors Associations this week to discuss companies’ debts worth more than USD5mn, which were estimated at USD1.2bn related to 88 companies.
 
Bank Audi: USD6.77 as of 16 Mar. 2017, Rating: Buy, TP: USD7.90/share, MCap: USD2,706mn, AUSR LB/AUSR.BY