Samba Financial Group (“Samba”) is pleased to announce the launch of their US$ 500 million term loan debut facility, which is also the first syndicated facility by a Saudi financial institution.
The facility is structured as a 5 years bullet term loan, carries a margin of 37.5 bps p.a. over LIBOR and will be used for general corporate purposes.
The Mandated Lead Arrangers (“MLA’s”) for the transaction are Arab National Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank N.A, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Gulf International Bank B.S.C., J.P. Morgan, Qatar National Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
The Facility has been fully underwritten by Citibank, N.A. (“Citigroup”) and J.P. Morgan plc (“JPMorgan”). In addition both Citigroup and JPMorgan are Bookrunners and J.P. Morgan Europe Limited will act as the Facility Agent.
General syndication has been launched on Tuesday October 6th to a select group of regional as well as international banks with commitments due October 30th. To support the transaction, Samba will also be hosting two bank meetings in London and Dubai that will be attended by Samba’s senior management representatives.
Samba Managing Director and CEO Mr. Eisa Al-Eisa stated that this landmark transaction was a reflection of the international and regional banking community’s confidence in Samba and its management team. He emphasized that this transaction was not only the first syndicated facility by a financial institution in the Kingdom, but also the largest syndication deal executed by a financial institution in the Middle East. He was of the view that this transaction would establish an international pricing benchmark for Samba while providing long term diversified pool of financing for the institution.
Samba is a leading bank operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Bank offers universal products and services catering to consumers, wealthy individuals, small and medium enterprises, top tier corporates and public institutions. The Bank is highly focused on the top end of each market segment and is supported by a wide array of sophisticated products and an integrated technology based distribution network. With $23 Billion in assets, Samba is the second largest bank in the Kingdom as well as in the Middle East. Samba has achieved record half-year results (30th June 2004) with net income of $323 million in comparison to net income of $260 million for the prior year six months ending 6/30/03.