HSBC Bank Egypt
Egypt has been looking east in recent years in search of new trade partners, and one country in particular has caught its eye. China is an ideal investment ally. It needs energy, and Cairo’s ambitions include becoming a regional energy hub by shipping liquefied natural gas south and east through the Suez Canal.
In turn, Egypt is a key link in China’s ambitious Belt & Road Initiative, and the Suez Canal Economic Zone, taking shape in the Gulf of Suez, includes investment from hundreds of mainland firms.
Few lenders are better placed to benefit from this burgeoning bilateral relationship than HSBC. The British lender has been in Egypt since 1982 and in China since 1865, and is finding ever more ingenious ways to help finance and promote two-way trade between the two countries.
When China Electric Power, part of State Grid Corporation of China, needed financial backing to win its first contact in Egypt, it turned to HSBC for financing and advice. The bank underwrote two guarantees: an advance payment bond of $98.8 million and a performance bond worth $66 million.
HSBC is working with dozens of Chinese companies, from infrastructure giants to pharmaceutical firms to desalination experts, all keen to invest in the new development zone and to use it as a springboard to serve markets across the Middle East and south Asia.