Egypt’s banks begin freezing loans to Saudi companies caught up in purge

So much for the Saudi purge not impacting business in Egypt: Egypt’s banks have reportedly begun freezing transactions on accounts held by Saudi Arabian princes and officials arrested as part of an anti-corruption probe launched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. As it stands, banks have frozen EGP 2.5 bn in loans for projects in Egypt extended to companies beneficially owned by these individuals. A consortium of banks have frozen a EGP 1.6 bn loan to Al Tayyar Group, whose primary shareholder Nasser Al Tayyar was caught up in the probe, Al Shorouk reports. A consortium led by Banque Misr froze a EGP 900 mn loan to Marasem International For Urban Development, a subsidiary of the Bin Laden Group. The move is part of a region-wide asset seizure and repatriation for the officials caught up in the Saudi investigation, Reuters reports. The UAE had asked its banks to provide account information on 19 people on the list. As we noted last week, a number of government and business officials had said the purge would not impact Saudi investments in Egypt.