APICORP seals SR1 billion murabaha facility with Al-Rajhi

Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), the multilateral development bank of the 10-member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), announced that it has successfully closed a five-year SR1 billion ($267 million) bilateral Shariah-compliant facility from Al-Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia’s major Islamic bank on competitive market terms.
The deal was led by the financial institutions team of Al-Rajhi Bank.
The facility is aimed at retaining and increasing APICORP’s medium-term funding. Al-Rajhi Bank was the sole murabaha facility arranger, lender and agent.
Ahmad bin Hamad Al-Nuaimi, CEO and general manager of APICORP, said: “We are very delighted with our long association with Al-Rajhi Bank, the strongest and largest Islamic financial institution in the region, which has actively supported and participated in APICORP’s all recent major Islamic fund raising deals.
This loan reiterates APICORP’s track record as a benchmark institution to deal with the banking community and endorses Al-Rajhi’s commitment to APICORP’s mission in financing oil-related infrastructural development needs of the Kingdom and the region.”
Suliman bin Abdulaziz Azzabin, CEO of Al-Rajhi Bank, welcomed the successful closing of the murabaha financing deal.
“We are immensely proud once again to be part of APICORP’s fund raising program and the transaction demonstrates the strengthening ties between the two premier institutions in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
“We look forward to working more closely with APICORP as they execute their growth strategy in the coming years,” he added.
APICORP is a multilateral development bank headquartered in Alkhobar/Dammam, in the Eastern Province to foster the development of the Arab world’s oil and gas industries.
The organization was created under the terms of an agreement signed by the 10-member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) in September 1974.
APICORP enjoys a foreign currency issuer rating of Aa3 for long-term debt and Prime-1 for its short-term debt with stable outlook from Moody’s Investors Service.
Al-Rajhi Bank, established in 1987, is claimed to be the largest retail bank in Saudi Arabia and the largest Islamic bank in the world with total assets of SR279 billion ($74.4 billion) and total shareholders’ equity of SR38.4 billion ($10.2 billion) as at end of Dec. 31, 2013.
Al-Rajhi Bank has worldwide presence with a branch network of 500 branches across the Kingdom and 28 globally in addition to a sophisticated network of 3,644 automated teller machines (ATMs).