Egypt's Al-Nahda Company for Industries has raised a 1.2 billion Egyptian pound ($218 million) syndicated loan to build a cement plant in southern Egypt, one of the loan's arrangers said.

The Industrial Development Authority said in November that Al-Nahda's cement production license, awarded in October 2007, was one of five under review because of start-up delays.

"Construction will start in one month," Banque Misr's general manager, Mohamed Abbas, told Reuters shortly before the loan signing ceremony.

Al-Nahda is owned 30 per cent by National Cement Company and 30 per cent by Arab Contractors. Egyptian authorities recently withdrew one of the five licences under review from the company that won it.

The government had offered the licenses in 2007 after increased local demand pushed up domestic cement prices.

The 1.9 billion pound plant in Qena province will have a daily capacity of 5,500 tonnes and take two years to build, state-owned Banque Misr said in a printed statement.

Banque Misr took up 33 per cent of the loan and co-arranger National Bank of Egypt 17 per cent, Banque Misr added. "The loan will be for 10 years," Abbas said.

Participating banks included Banque du Caire, the Export Development Bank of Egypt, Societe Arabe Internationale de Banque, the United Bank, Egyptian Saudi Finance Bank and Cairo-based Arab Investment Bank-Reuters