AIIB to provide a guarantee of more than $200M in Egypt’s green panda bonds

CAIRO - 26 June 2023: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development bank, is in talks to guarantee a climate-related bond being issued by Egypt, Bloomberg cited AIIB’s President, Jin Liqun.

Bloomberg cited Liqun saying that AIIB is working with Egypt to provide a guarantee for their bond issuance.

Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, stated that AIIB will provide more than $200M for the green panda bonds that Egypt intends to issue, local media reported. The exact amount and time frame will be declared soon, Maait said.

Earlier in May, The African Development Bank announced last month to provide insurance coverage for $345 million of the maiden CNY-denominated bond issuance. This partial guarantee aims to facilitate Egypt's access to the Chinese bond market to enable the Arab country to finance environmental and social projects.

The bond proceeds will be used for clean transportation, renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable water, and wastewater management, financing for MSMEs, and essential health services initiatives, among others.

Egypt is considered the first African country to issue panda bonds on the Chinese market and it plans to raise the equivalent of $500 million.