Egypt has secured a first tranche of financing for an 8-billion-euro (US$8.5 billion) plan for power plants to be built by Siemens, the company and electricity ministry said.
A consortium of banks has agreed to supply credit for the Beni Suef natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant, the first of three planned plants, a spokesman for Munich-based Siemens said on Monday.
Two agreements, worth 2 billion euros in total, were signed by Siemens and El Sewedy Electric, the electricity ministry said in a statement.
The project is expected to start operations in 2016, with full production by April 2018.
The 8-billion-euro deal was signed in June and marked the single biggest order in Siemens' history. It is designed to boost Egypt's electricity generation by 50 percent.
The plan calls for three combined-cycle power plants with a capacity of 4,800 megawatts each plus 12 wind farms.
