EFG Hermes to start factoring services, expand leasing

CAIRO - 18 July 2017: Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes will begin offering factoring services before the end of the year as part of a push into non-banking services, an EFG official told Reuters on Tuesday.

EFG Hermes, one of the largest investment banks in the Middle East, is also looking to expand the leasing services it began offering in 2015 for large institutions and small and medium sized companies in the Egyptian market.

"Over the next two years, we aim ... to increase our financial leasing portfolio to 5 billion pounds ($279 million) from about 2 billion pounds," said Walid Hassouna, chief executive officer and head of the debt structuring division at EFG Hermes.

The bank has also obtained preliminary approval from Egypt's supervisory authority to carry out factoring and plans to begin offering the service in the fourth quarter of this year, Hassouna said.

"Our target is to provide an overall solution for clients in non-banking financial services through providing short- medium- and long-term funding," he said.

Hassouna also said the bank would serve as an adviser on debt restructuring deals for three Middle Eastern firms looking to obtain loans worth a total of $700 million by the end of 2018. He did not specify the companies.

The bank's non-banking financial services include insurance, real estate funding, leasing and factoring.