update, page-2

Dean, I am not concerned at Morsi being turfed.

What a lot of posters in here are forgetting is we are dealing with a consortium of four local Egyptian Banks & local investors, not international ones. Yes international banks would be inclined to shelve this application given the last few days, but this is not who GIP is negotiating with, nor the other three substantial gulf financial institutions that have also indicated a willingness to participate.

I believe it stands to reason, local bankers would be uneasy about lending directly in Cairo at present where something could get trashed or totally destroyed (income stream ceases, buyers evaporate) whereas an open pit mine hundreds of kilometers away employing locals attracts little downside risk in such circumstances. Put another way, if this were happening in Sydney, would our banks want to finance a office block around Hyde Park, or an open pit coal mine at Lithgow ?

The Bank technical team mine site inspection was mid June, a couple of weeks to finalise their report & another couple waiting for next credit committee meetings puts the project finance timetable announcement somewhere between mid & late July