White & Case in $7 Billion Saudi Telecoms Financing

Investor Interest in the Saudi Telecommunications Sector Continues to Grow

Riyadh, August 15, 2007 ... The Law Office of Mohammed Al-Sheikh, in association with White & Case LLP, advised Citigroup, SAMBA, Gulf International Bank, Bank Saudi Fransi, Al Rajhi Bank, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Arab National Bank, Arab Banking Corporation and National Bank of Kuwait as Mandated Lead Arrangers in connection with two financing facilities, with a combined value in excess of $7 billion, which have been created to finance the purchase of the third mobile telecommunications licence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The licence will be purchased by Mada Leletisalat LLC, a special purpose vehicle owned by a consortium of Saudi Arabian shareholders and Mobile Telecommunications Company K.S.C. Together the facilities comprise a guarantee facility of up to nearly $5 billion and an Islamic Murābahā based facility of up to $2.5 billion.

This is the second major telecommunications Islamic financing that White & Case has advised on in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the last few months. In March the Firm advised Mobily, the holder of the second Saudi mobile telecoms licence, in connection with a groundbreaking $2.875 billion Islamic financing facility, based on airtime. In a market first, this highly innovative Islamic finance instrument enabled 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 Mobily financing was also the largest syndicated Islamic loan to date.

"Infrastructure investment is surging across the Middle East with telecoms being a particular focus of growth. We continue to expect further telecoms financings across the region driven by strong market growth underpinned by rapidly rising consumer demand," commented White & Case partner Chris Utting.

The White & Case team advising the syndicate of lenders on the financing was led by partners Chris Utting and Craig Nethercott in London, working closely with partner Mohammed Al-Sheikh in Riyadh, associates Sidrah Arif and Edward Hills in London and associate Harj Rai in Riyadh, as well as trainee solicitor Leonie Carroll in London.

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