CAIRO - Egyptian microfinance lending and payments company MNT-Halan said on Monday it had closed a securitised bond issuance of approximately $150 million, as part of a $600 million program with Commercial International Bank (CIB).

"The proceeds will fuel the company's accelerated growth across multiple lending business lines," the company said.

"We expect our loan book to exceed $2 billion over the next couple of years," CEO Mounir Nakhla said in a statement. MNT-Halan's loan book now stands at $600 million.

The securitisation offering was two times oversubscribed, the statement added.

New legislation and regulatory changes in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, have unleashed a surge in new fintech investments and changed the way the country's largely unbanked citizens do business.

MNT-Halan has more than 4 million customers in Egypt, of which 3.1 million are financial clients and 1.8 million are borrowers.

Three private equity funds and a group of venture capitalists last year invested about $120 million in the company, it said in September.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr Writing by Aidan Lewis Editing by Louise Heavens)