Middle East Loans

Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co (Kufpec) has mandated banks for a five year loan of around $1bn, according to two sources.

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) is working to get the final part of its second export credit agency-backed loan by the end of this quarter. The deal will wrap up the multibillion dollar-equivalent financing for one of the largest brownfield projects in the Middle East.

Maaden Bauxite and Alumina Co has amended and refinanced $2.1bn-equivalent of long term debt. The subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Mining Co has locked in better terms on its debt than the loans being replaced.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has returned to the Asian loan market after two years absence, plotting a $400m deal that has already been partly taken up by lead bank Mizuho.

Middle Eastern loans bankers are preparing for even more M&A from the region in the coming months, with the United Arab Emirates tipped to continue driving asset sales.

Bahraini sovereign bonds fell victim to “malicious rumours” this week after they took a further battering following headlines that Lazard had been appointed as an adviser to the country. The firm, which advises on debt restructuring among other things, was in fact appointed in early May and has been advising the country on its economy for several months, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Virginia Furness and Michael Turner report.

A new wave of liquidity and price crunching could hit Bahrain’s loan market once details of the country’s bailout from its GCC neighbours emerge, according to lenders from the region.

Saudi retailer Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & Co has signed an Islamic loan for $300m-equivalent, marking one of the few Shariah-compliant deals to be completed during Ramadan.

Oman’s Bank Sohar has sent an invitation to banks to join a syndicated loan, as lenders jostle for mandates on a spate of deals in the Middle East.

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kipic) has secured a multi-billion dollar export credit agency backed loan to finance construction of a $3.6bn integrated refining complex in its home country.

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has signed a conventional and Shariah compliant $480m four year revolving credit facility, as the Middle East continues to be the main bright spot in a dour CEEMEA loans market.

Morocco has landed a €200m loan from the African Development Bank that will go towards the country’s agriculture industry, a sector that Standard & Poor’s recently said was part of the reason the sovereign’s credit rating remains “constrained”.