Concentration

Summary

Representative Engagements

• Saudi Arabian and regional banks – Islamic financing of an expansion to a petrochemical plant in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, involving the application of commodity-backed Murabaha financing techniques in the context of a multicurrency loan comprising several different facilities
• Regional and Saudi private equity houses – establishment of business and fund structures within Saudi Arabia and in offshore jurisdictions (e.g., Cayman Islands, Jersey and Guernsey)
• Saudi Arabian real estate developer – development, construction and operation of several new three-star and five-star hotels and an office block in Saudi Arabia, including private placement and finance under an Islamic structure
• Saudi Arabian bank – two real estate development projects in Saudi Arabia financed under an Islamic structure
• Major U.S. energy corporation – oil refinery project in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Arabian bank – joint venture to provide Islamic-compliant real estate finance and products on a retail level
• Saudi Arabian bank – joint venture to provide Islamic-compliant lease finance
• Local Saudi Arabian bank – joint venture with a major international insurance provider
• Japanese sponsors – proposed development of an IPP of a 900-megawatt extension of the PP9 power plant owned by Saudi Consolidated Electricity Company for the Central Region (SCECO Central), now consolidated into Saudi Electricity Company
• Saudi Electricity Company, Saudi Arabia's now vertically integrated electricity utility – corporate restructuring and commercialization
• Saudi Electricity Company – substantial corporate loan from a syndicate of Saudi Arabian and other Gulf banks (Arab National Bank, Gulf International Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Samba Financial Group (formerly known as Saudi American Bank), Saudi Hollandi Bank, The Saudi British Bank and The National Commercial Bank)
• Syndicate of Saudi Arabian banks (Samba Financial Group, Saudi Hollandi Bank and Banque Saudi Fransi) – nonrecourse project financing of the Kingdom Centre, a prestigious mixed-use office, condominium, hotel and shopping mall development in Riyadh
• Hong Kong corporation – acquisition of a shareholding in a company incorporated in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and holding a port concession
• Syndicate of Saudi Arabian banks (Samba Financial Group, Saudi Hollandi Bank and Banque Saudi Fransi) – nonrecourse project financing of the Kingdom Centre, a prestigious mixed-use office, condominium, hotel and shopping mall development in Riyadh
• Samba Financial Group and Banque Saudi Fransi – nonrecourse project financing of the Equestrian Club, a mixed-use development in Jeddah comprised of an exclusive social club, sports facilities, thalasso-balneo center, hotel, shopping mall and marina
• Samba Financial Group as placement agent – private placements of equity in a new special-purpose Saudi Arabian project company formed for the construction, development and management of the Equestrian Club, Jeddah
• Samba Financial Group – merger with United Saudi Bank
• Samba Financial Group – lease financing of various private executive aircraft for certain high-net-worth clients of Samba Financial Group
• Samba Financial Group – various short-term debt ("Guaranteed Corporate Obligations") programs
• Syndicate of Saudi Arabian and other Gulf banks (Banque Saudi Fransi, Gulf International Bank, Riyad Bank and The Saudi British Bank) – limited recourse project financing of a methanol plant at Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, involving Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) as lead sponsor and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund as a lender
• ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Saudi Hollandi Bank and the Dutch Export Credit Agency (Atradius) – limited recourse project financing of a butanediol plant at Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, involving Sipchem as lead sponsor and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund and the Public Investment Fund as lenders
• Syndicate of Saudi Arabian banks (Arab National Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Riyad Bank and The Saudi British Bank) – substantial medium-term loan to a leading financial institutional based in Kuwait
• Major French bottled water producer – acquisitions over a period of several years of strategic controlling interests in companies engaged in bottled water production, principally in Saudi Arabia, but also in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
• Saudi Aramco – representation on, and preparing detailed legal reports and analysis (including detailed legal analysis of Saudi Arabia's electricity sector) in connection with, the project financing by foreign developers of a gas treatment plant, petrochemical plant and two independent power and water desalination plants
• Various Saudi Arabian and other Gulf banks – receivables securitization programs
• Prospective foreign investor – proposed strategic acquisition in Saudi Arabia's current monopoly telecommunications service provider, Saudi Telecommunications Company
• Leading Gulf financial institution based in Kuwait – structuring of a lease securitization and related bond issue in Saudi Arabia on an Islamic finance basis
• Local and Gulf banking institutions – various transactions involving the application of Islamic financing principles and structures, including those relating to an adl (collateral agent), ijara (lease), istisna'a (contract of construction or manufacture), mudaraba (capital and services partnership) and murabaha (cost-plus-profit sale contract)

Publications, Speeches and Presentations

• Saudi Arabia country chapter, Financial Services Regulations in the Middle East (2nd Edition), Oxford University Press 2008 (with Stephen Matthews & Aminta Paiva, co-authors)