Reuters – Kuwait's Zain has finalised an $800m, five-year loan facility from 11 banks, the telecommunications operator said on Tuesday. Zain, which has operations in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa including Sudan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, said it originally planned to raise $600m, but increased the facility's size because of what it described as an "exceptionally strong response from banks". The money will be used for general corporate purposes, Zain said. Its amortising structure will involve Zain repaying both interest and principal during the lifetime of the loan, as opposed to a bullet facility where it would only pay interest during the tenure, sources familiar with the deal said. Zain has an existing $867m debt facility maturing in March. Royal Bank of Scotland and Union National Bank acted as lead arrangers. Participating lenders from the Middle East are National Bank of Abu Dhabi, National Bank of Kuwait, Samba Financial Group, Al Khalij Commercial Bank, Arab Bank and Arab Banking Corp. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Crédit Agricole and Natixis are the other contributing banks.
