www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain Saudi Arabia (“Zain KSA”) held the closing for a US$ 2.5 billion Murabaha financing facility. The funds will be used to repay its existing Murabaha, facilitating the mobile telecom operation’s ongoing network expansion and future growth. The term of the facility is two years with options of extending for a further twelve months.
Al Rajhi Capital, Banque Saudi Fransi and Calyon acted as Financial Advisors, with a total of eight regional and international financial institutions participating in what is one of the largest Islamic financings this year. Al Rajhi Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi and Calyon acted as Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners, while National Bank of Kuwait and Arab National Bank acting as Senior Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners. Saudi British Bank (SABB) acted as the Senior Mandated Lead Arranger with Gulf Bank and Standard Bank acting as Mandated Lead Arrangers.
“This is an enormous vote of confidence by the International financial community in Zain KSA’s performance to date and its future expansion plans in the region’s largest economy,” said Dr Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia and Zain Group. “The growth and success of this mobile operation is critical to Zain Group’s 2011 ambition of being a top ten global mobile telecommunications company. The Murabaha facility, which comes at a vital stage of Zain KSA ’s business growth cycle, will play an important role in achieving this goal.”
