(Updates with planned capacity in third paragraph.)

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Pegas Nonwovens SA, a Czech maker of special textiles used in hygiene products and health care, plans to build a factory in Egypt to supply a customer in the Middle East.

The final decision on the investment hinges on concluding a contract with the unspecified customer, expected to take place probably in the coming months, the Znojmo-based company said in an e-mailed statement today.

In the first phase of the project, Pegas plans to invest between 55 million euros ($79 million) and 60 million euros to have production capacity of about 20,000 tons a year. The company said it may by 2016 expand the Egyptian factory to more than double the capacity to 50,000 tons a year, depending on market conditions.

Founded in 1990, Pegas makes non-woven fabrics mainly for hygiene products, the construction and medical industries. The company operates two plants with eight production lines in the Czech Republic, supplying 70,000 tons of non-woven textiles annually.

Pegas rose 1.2 koruna, or 0.3 percent, to 451.2 koruna as of 9:42 a.m. in Prague.

--Editors: Andrea Dudik, Alan Purkiss.

To contact the reporters on this story: Radoslav Tomek in Bratislava at rtomek@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net