CASE STUDIES
& DEAL LIST
Islamic Banking / Financing /
Case Study A: Abraj Al Bait (Makkah Clock Tower), Makkah,
The Abraj Al Bait project, in the heart of Makkah and overlooking the Ka’baa the holiest place in Islam and the direction towards which all Muslims around the world pray to was my first project and indeed the first legal work that I did in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The transaction involved most of the major banks in the GCC, being a project that every country in the GCC wanted to get involved with, the transaction was religiously very sensitive and accordingly thestructuring and the terms of the transaction documents went through one of the most stringent Shariah due diligence.
I took over this project in the middle of the transaction and effectively restructured the key provisions and drafting accordingly having negotiated with Shariah boards of the various banks. The transaction was based on Ijara financing. The current value of the project is estimated around US$15 billion. Financial close occurred in Jeddah just before morning prayers, I and several of the bankers were invited to perform the Umrah to Makkah by the sponsor – this was the mostamazing start to my career in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Case Study B: Methanol Chemicals Company SJSC
(CHEMANOL), Jubail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The project was in the middle of construction and had a cost overrun.
I restructured the original financing, as well draft new Shariah compliant financing document, the documents on the original financing were drafted by the borrowers counsel, and accordingly the lenders thought that I should draft all the new and addendum documents for the transaction going forward due to the fact that it was no longer a straight forward transaction but effectively a restructure of the whole financing.
Managing a group of Saudi Arabian lenders and a international bank was complicated as is expected as each bank had differing views on the risks involved with the project that had effectively entered into significant difficulties to complete.
Deal List: Islamic Banking /
Financing / Project Finance
- Advising the lenders on the Jeddah ISTP for the up to 500,000 m3 per day independent sewage treatment plant
- Advised the lenders on the Dammam ISTP for the up to 350,000 m3 per day independent sewage treatment plant
- Advised on Islamic Finance documents in connection with a US$10 billion Ijara based Islamic Finance of a downstream petrochemical complex
- Acts for majority of ECA financing originating from Germany to Saudi Arabia
- Advised on re-structuring and correcting erroneous Shariah documentations drafted by opposing counsel, requiring a complete overhaul and re-drafting for a facility in excess of SR1.2 billion
- Advised on revolving and term loan with a letter of credit facility of US$135 million
- Advised on Ijara based Islamic Finance document in connection with a major development project in the holy city of Makkah valued at US$750 million
- Advised on a US$326 million multicurrency project cost overrun funding facilities structured as an Islamic commodity-backed Murabaha
- Advised on multi-jurisdictional term loan facility of US$325 million
- Advised a banking syndicate in the negotiation of SR360 million facility for the construction of health centres.
- Advising a consortium on the Qurayyah Independent Power Project 1 for the building of a facility to provide electricity generation of approximately 1800MW.
- Advised on the Rabigh Independent Power Project for the building of the approximately 1,200 MW power plant.
- Advised on the Riyadh Independent Power Project P11 for the development of the approximately 1,729 MW power generation capacity.
- Advised on the re-structuring and refinancing of a major petrochemical company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- Advised on the project cost overrun financing relating to a petrochemical company.
- Advised on the re-structuring of a major Saudi construction contractor.
- Advised on and drafted standardized Islamic finance documents for corporate borrower which are now used as standard precedents.
- Advised a banking syndicate in the negotiation of SR360 million facility for the construction of health centres
- Advising a consortium on the Qurayyah Independent Power Project 1 for the building of a facility to provide electricity generation of approximately 1800MW
- Advised on the Rabigh Independent Power Project for the building of the approximately 1,200 MW power plant
- Advised on the Riyadh Independent Power Project P11 for the development of the approximately 1,729 MW power generation capacity
- Advised on the re-structuring and refinancing of a major petrochemical company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Advised on the project cost overrun financing relating to a petrochemical company
- Advised on the re-structuring of a major Saudi construction contractor
- Advised on and drafted standardized Islamic finance documents for corporate borrower which are now used as standard precedents
- Advised on sale, purchase and leaseback in relation to assets of a hospital group
- Advised on Murabaha contracts on behalf of Islamic banks
- Advised on Mudaraba agreements
- Advised on the provision of Islamic loans from foreign shareholders to Saudi Arabian joint ventures
- Advised on two auto based securitization with initial warehouse facility followed by Shariah compliant Sukuk issuance