Revolutionary $2.875 Billion Islamic Finance Facility Breaks New Ground in Telecoms Sector

Two Years of Work with Sharī'a Scholars Culminates in Breakthrough Structure

Riyadh, March 14, 2007 ... The Law Office of Mohammed Al-Sheikh, in association with White & Case LLP, advised Mobily, one of only two mobile telecoms service providers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in connection with a groundbreaking $2.875 billion Islamic financing facility, based on airtime. In a market first, this highly innovative Islamic finance instrument enables Mobily to sell minutes of airtime to the financiers involved, before then taking on the role of agent to these banks and selling the minutes for a profit. The financing is also the largest syndicated Islamic loan to date. ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Banque Saudi Fransi, CALYON, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, The National Commercial Bank, Saudi Holland Bank and SAMBA acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers in the financing.

"This is a revolutionary development for the telecoms sector in the Islamic finance market, and something that we have been working on with Sharī'a scholars for two years," commented White & Case partner Craig Nethercott, co-head of the Firm's Islamic Finance practice. "Through using both our Islamic finance and telecoms expertise we were able to assist in bringing to market a product that is not only Sharī'a-compliant, but which also has the advantage of offering telecoms companies the opportunity to uniquely tailor the use of Islamic finance facilities to utilise the assets they are able to offer."

The White & Case team advising Mobily on the transaction was jointly led by partners Craig Nethercott and Chris Utting in London and Mohammed Al-Sheikh in Riyadh, working alongside associates Sidrah Arif and Edward Hills in London, and associate Harj Rai in Riyadh. Additional telecoms advice was provided by partner David Eisenberg, global co-head of the Telecoms practice, based in London.

The Mobily transaction follows on from the recent groundbreaking Sukuk issuance by Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate Development Company, on which the Law Office of Mohammed Al-Sheikh, in association with White & Case LLP, also acted. The Firm advised ABC Islamic Bank E.C., Arab National Bank, Standard Bank Plc, Unicorn Investment Bank BSC and WestLB AG as Joint Lead Managers and Underwriters in connection with the company's $600 million Sukuk issuance, the first Sukuk issuance in the international capital markets by a Saudi corporate.

"In the last two weeks we have closed in excess of $3 billion of Islamic facilities. These are groundbreaking deals in the telecommunications and real estate sectors and both are very significant advances in the development of Islamic financing in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," added White & Case partner Mohammed Al-Sheikh, co-head of the Firm's Islamic Finance practice.

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