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Mobily refinances some of its debt with a USD 1.3 murabaha facility from SNB:Telecoms giant Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has inked a SAR 4.8 bn (USD 1.3 bn) murabaha financing agreement with Saudi National Bank (SNB), the company said in a statement to Tadawul last week. The agreement plays into the operator’s long-term financial strategy and its capital restructuring objectives.
Terms & conditions: The shariah-compliant loan comes with a seven-year payback period, and is “characterized by favorable terms and competitive interest rates,” the statement read.The agreement does not include any mortgages or financial guarantees.
Settling an old bill + boosting its working capital: Some SAR 3.7 bn out of the Murabaha proceeds are earmarked to partially refinance Mobily’s existing debt obligations — which currently amount to SAR 5.3 bn. The facility’s remaining SAR 1.1 bn will be used to finance the company’s operational capital, according to the disclosure.
Murabaha? Murabaha financing is often used instead of loans in Islamic finance given that interest-bearing loans are prohibited under Islamic Shariah. It sees the seller and buyer agree to the cost and markup of an asset, with the markup replacing interest. A seller and buyer agree to the cost and the markup, which are paid back in installments.
2023 was a good year: Mobily’s bottomline for 9M 2023 jumped 41% y-o-y to c. SAR 1.5 bn on the back of higher revenues, according to the company’s latest financial statements in October.
IN OTHER ISLAMIC FINANCE NEWS-
Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) wrapped up its USD-denominated sukuk issuance on Friday, according to a disclosure to Tadawul. The issuance is part of the lender’s USD 4 bn trust certificate issuance program, rated A- by S&P global. There was no publicly available information about the size of the actual allocations by the time we clicked send on this issue. Expect BSF to make a regulatory filing about the transaction today.
The details: The London-listed offering has reportedly received orders worth USD 3 bn, according to a document seen by Reuters. The shariah-compliant securities reportedly carried a five-year maturity and traded at a 105 bps premium to their US treasury counterparts, the newswire added. The required minimum subscription is USD 200k at increments of USD 1k in excess.
What we know: The issuance will be made available for subscription to local and international investors through a special purpose vehicle with proceeds earmarked to support the lender’s Islamic finance business.
ADVISORS- BSF has hired Citigroup Global Markets, Emirates NBD Bank, HSBC Bank, Merrill Lynch International, Mizuho International, and Saudi Fransi Capital as joint lead managers on the transaction.
Not the first: Last year, BSF closed a USD 900 mn RegS senior unsecured sukuk issuance that was 3x oversubscribed. The London-listed issuance offered an annual yield of 4.75% with a five-year maturity.
