CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt signed a $2 billion conventional and Islamic loan with several international and regional banks in a deal coordinated by two UAE lenders, the finance ministry said on Monday.

Emirates NBD Capital and First Abu Dhabi Bank were joint coordinators and lead managers of the deal, the ministry said in a statement.

The loan aims at “financing the state budget and supporting the Egyptian economy in order to maintain its strong path in the face of fluctuations prevailing in global markets”, it added.

The loan was approved by parliament, the statement said.

A parliamentary document obtained by Reuters showed Egypt initialized the deal with Emirates NBD and FAD in July 20 to obtain a one-year, $2 billion loan in two tranches to close the gap in its 2020/21 budget wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first tranche is a conventional facility of $1.490 billion and the second an Islamic facility of $510 million, the document added.

“When they came to the market…on the back of COVID, the pricing was dislocated, the comparables were a bit on the high end. But they managed to convince the banks to commit to a tight level. And now…,it is in line with the market’s pricing,” a banking source said.