IslamicFinance.de

Latham & Watkins advised Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily), a telecommunications operator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in connection with a $200m murabaha facility made available by Export Development Canada. The facility will be used by Mobily to purchase eligible goods and services supplied to it by affiliates and subsidiaries of Alcatel Lucent S.A., including Alcatel Lucent, Canada Inc. This transaction represents Mobily’s third ECA-backed Islamic financing following on from its $646m murabaha facility with the support of Exportkreditnämnden and Finnvera plc in August 2013. In 2014 Latham & Watkins advised Mobily in connection with its $561m murabaha facilities made available by Exportkreditnämnden and Finnvera plc.

Islamic lending companies from Dubai’s DIFC Investments LLC to Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat take advantage of falling borrowing costs. As a result, Islamic syndicated lending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose to a four-year high this year. Shariah-compliant transactions this year are as high as $8.37 billion (Dh30.74 billion). The largest share belongs to Etihad Etisalat and is worth 10 billion-riyal ($2.67 billion). This year’s lending is over $3 billion higher than last year's.

Etihad Etisalat Company secured a SAR 1.2 billion facility through short-term Islamic financing at a competitive Murabah rate for 12 months through a consortium of five banks: Samba Financial Group, National Commercial Bank, Riyadh Bank, the Saudi Arabian British Bank and Saudi Fransi Bank.
The new financing will be used to expand and upgrade Mobily's current data communication infrastructure to grow Mobily's mobile and fixed broadband business in line with the company's strategic Growth, Efficiency and Differentiation (GED) objectives.