Gulf Bank has been appointed a Senior Lead Arranger for a $5 billion syndicated loan facility for the Dubai World Corporation.

The loan is to provide financing for general corporate purposes including acquisitions and investments.

The bank will provide $250 million to help finance the loan qualifying it to be a senior lead arranger, with the other arrangers comprising The Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse International and Deutsche Bank, the bank said in a statement.

“Gulf Bank is committed to participating in major syndicated loan arrangements of this nature as it seeks to diversify its investments and to continue to play a full role in helping support economic development and investment across the GCC. The Dubai World loan will be one of the biggest that the bank has worked on to date,it added.

Gulf Bank’s General Manager for International Banking Khaled Al-Mutawa, led the bank’s team involved with the loan deal.

“This is a very significant deal for us and I was delighted to have the opportunity to use Gulf Bank’s growing regional and international expertise to ensure that the bank had an important part to play in bringing the loan deal to conclusion as a senior lead arranger,” he said.

“This is an important loan for Gulf Bank to be involved with and we are delighted to be taking this role to support such a powerful regionally-based global company like Dubai World,” he added.

Dubai World is currently managing and supervising a diversified portfolio of investments that spans over 100 cities across the world. One of the world’s largest holding companies it has total assets of $65 billion, total revenues of $9.4 billion and 50,000 employees worldwide. 

Among its 100 per cent owned subsidiaries are regional and international leaders in the area of transport, real estate, ports and financial services including Nakheel, the Palm Islands, the World Islands, Jebel Ali Free Zone and Istithmar.

“We are increasingly looking to diversify our investments and are delighted to have the ability to support the growing needs and demands of the flourishing GCC market,” said Gulf Bank’s Chief General Manager & CEO Mr. Louis Myers. – TradeArabia News Service