MWD Morgan Stanley

Today the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Egypt priced $1.25 billion of Notes in the international capital markets. The Notes, rated AAA/Aaa by S&P and Moody's respectively, will benefit from a guarantee made by the United States of America acting through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Notes, which have a 10-year final maturity, priced at a coupon of 4.45% or 31 basis points over the 10-year U.S. Treasury. The Notes were several times oversubscribed and widely distributed to international investors. Morgan Stanley acted as Sole Bookrunner and Manager on the transaction. The guarantee was provided by the US Government to support the comprehensive economic reform program currently undertaken by Egypt. The Egyptian Minister of Finance, Dr. Youssef Boutros-Ghali, stated that "the transaction demonstrates continued US support for our reform agenda." Dr. Boutros-Ghali further indicated that "Egypt is embarking on important structural transformations and this financing will reduce our overall cost of borrowing." The Egyptian economy grew at a real growth rate of 4.9% in the fiscal year ending June 2005. According to Bloomberg, the stock market has been one of the best performing markets in 2005 with a 110% year-to-date dollar adjusted increase in the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) index.