Germany’s Siemens has received bank guarantees from a group of five regional lenders for the three power projects it is building in the Arab world’s most populous country.

The €490m ($518m) guarantee for Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) for the supply of machinery and equipment by Siemen’s was arranged by National Bank of Egypt, Bank Misr, Commercial International Bank, Ahli United Bank and Union National Bank, according to a source familiar with the deal.

A spokesperson at Siemens in Egypt didn’t respond to emailed request for comments.

The EEHC last week signed a $4.4bn deal with Deutsche Bank, the German subsidiary of UK-based HSBC, and German development bank KfW, according to local news website Amwal al-Ghad. The 15-year loan with a three-year grace period will cover 85 per cent of a €6bn contract for the gas-fired power plants to be built by Siemens, local Orascom Construction and El-Sewedy Electric.

Paris-based export credit agency (ECA) Euler Hermes, MEED reported in July. The ECA guarantees would protect the banks from currency risk, which have stalled some of the other financing deals with international lenders. Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority (SCA) bid to raise $500m-$750m loan from a group of Gulf lenders is the latest example of that.

The SCA was looking to raise a facility to fund several schemes around the waterway, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Siemens’ work in Egypt involves the engineering, procurement and construction of three gas-fired power plants at Beni Suef, Burullus and New Capital, each with a capacity of 4.8GW. The first 4.4GW will come online before the summer of 2017 and the full 14.4GW should be available 38 months from financial close.

The company also agreed to deliver up to 12 windfarms in the Gulf of Suez and West Nile areas as the second part of the $9bn deal, signed in June. The wind projects will consist of 600 wind turbines and a total installed capacity of 2GW.