Zain Saudi Arabia seals $2.5bn loan

DEAL SEALED: Zain Saudi Arabia successfully negotiates $2.5 billion loan to help fund network expansion. (Getty Images)

Zain Saudi Arabia on Tuesday closed a $2.5 billion Murabaha financing facility, which will be used to repay its existing Murabaha and fund network expansion and future growth.

Al Rajhi Capital, Banque Saudi Fransi and Calyon acted as financial advisors for the two year facility, which has the option of being extended for a further 12 months.

Saudi British Bank (SABB) acted as the senior mandated lead arranger with Gulf Bank and Standard Bank acting as mandated lead arrangers.

In a statement Dr Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia and Zain Group said: “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.

“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. The Murabaha facility, which comes at a vital stage of Zain KSA’s business growth cycle, will play an important role in achieving this goal,” he added.

The company, which is 25 percent owned by Kuwait's Zain, last year became the third mobile phone operator to be licensed in the kingdom after paying $6.1 billion for the privilege.

In less than 12 months the company, which reported H1 gross revenues of $342 million with average revenue per user per month (ARPU) of $19, has acquired four million customers.

Losses however surged 291 percent in Q2, bringing accumulated losses since it opened for business 12 months ago to 3.9 billion riyals ($1.04 billion).

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