$250 million medium term loan for the Egyptian Fertilizer Company

Cairo, 18 May 2004 – the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) in addition to six Egyptian banks: Misr Bank, MIBank, CIB, NSGB, HSBC and the Export Development Bank of Egypt singed yesterday a $250 million medium term loan contract with the Egyptian Fertilizer Company.

This amount will be used to finance the expansion of the Egyptian Fertilizer Company’s complex in Ain El Sukhna (near Suez). After the expansion, the complex will have a production capacity of 1,270 million tonnes per year of urea for the export markets. Production is expected in September 2006.

The loan duration is seven and half years.