Bank sources confirm that they have now been compensated for taking part in the $945m project finance deal, the largest such financing to have taken place in Egypt.

The deal was completed in early August 2007 involving a $565m international bank facility with Apicorp, Arab Bank, BNP Paribas, Export Development Canada, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Societe Generale acting as lead arrangers.

An Egyptian bank tranche of $375m was lead arranged by Banque Misr, Commercial International Bank, National Bank of Egypt, and National Societe Generale Bank.

Less than $10m remains to be paid back to the banks, which is expected to occur before the end of the year.

Following the decision to halt the project, Agrium sold its stake in the project to Egypt’s Misr Oil Processing Company (Mopco) (MEED 12:8:08).