Zain Saudi secures US$2.5 billion Islamic funding

Zain Saudi Arabia has announced the closure of 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.

“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 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.”

In less than 12 months, Zain Saudi Arabia has acquired four million customers. For the first half of 2009, Zain KSA reported gross revenues of US$342 million with ARPU of US$19. Zain KSA captured over 50 per cent of total net additions in the mobile telecom market during H109. The company’s network covers 65 per cent of the populated areas, with 85 per cent targeted by the end of 2009.