Middle East Loans

Telecom Egypt’s $500m five year loan syndication is expected to take at least another couple of weeks after potential lenders met in Dubai on Tuesday.

Loans bankers in the Middle East are turning their backs on the syndicated lending model as a way to try and preserve larger allocations in transactions, according to two bankers from the region.

Kuwait’s Zain Group has signed a $700m five year revolving credit facility, with all lenders scaled back by the telecoms company following an oversubscription.

Emerging market borrowers and investors are returning from the summer break slowly but surely this week, but caution is still the prevailing tone.

Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund that invests for the government of Saudi Arabia, is seeking global bank lenders for a debut loan.

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.