Jordan´s Arab Banking Corporation announced that it has successfully closed a four-year amortised syndicated loan for international finance company KSC. The facility is secured by an assignment of consumer loan receivables. The loan received considerable response and was increased to $75 million, from the initial size of $50 million. The Arab Banking Corporation, which acted as the lead arranger, raised the loan from a consortium of 14 banks: Abu Dhabi Investment Company, Ahli United Bank B.S.C, Bank Muscat International, British Arab Commercial Bank Limited, Bumiputra Commerce Bank Berhad, Commercial Bank of Qatar, Doha Bank, Emirates Bank, International PJSC, Jordan International Bank, National Bank of Bahrain, Qatar National Bank, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich Aktiengesellschaft, State Bank of India and Offshore Banking Unit, Bahrain.
Consortium TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group (TECOM- DIG ) have won the bid for the privatisation of Tunisie Telecom. Both partners are part of the Dubai Holding group. The consortium’s bid of $2.25 billion, for a 35% stake, was higher than all earlier offers, as well as Vivendi's current offer of $2.04 billion. TECOM- DIG was pre-qualified together with 12 other international telecom operators in 2005. However only six operators submitted final offers and TECOM- DIG and Vivendi Universal were short-listed for the final round. Tunisie Telecom has a monopoly in fixed-line telephon services and a 60% market share in cell-phones. Tunisie Telecom also has a majority stake in Mauritania mobile operator Mattel.
