Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) together with other financial powerhouses has entered into an agreement with Energy City Development Company to finance partially the prestigious Energy City project.

EIB is one of the leading Islamic financial institutions of the region.

The $200 million financing facility was jointly underwritten by EIB, Standard Bank of South Africa and Khaleeji Commercial Bank of Bahrain.

Other participating banks in the deal are Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Bank of London and the Middle East (UK), United Bank (UAE), Affin Islamic Bank Berhad (Malaysia), Sharjah Islamic Bank and the National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain.

The new strategic deal was successfully closed with a high-level signing ceremony held on April 8 at the head office of EIB in Dubai.

Speaking on the occasion, Ebrahim Fayez Alshamshi, EIB chief executive officer said the new partnership involves some of the largest financial names in the region and beyond.

"The Qatar Energy City is a unique project that symbolises the vision and futuristic plans of the region in general and Qatar in particular. It is also in line with EIB’s core value of playing an integral part in the development of the GCC, he observed.

Energy City Qatar is poised to become the region’s first integrated business and residential hub dedicated to the hydrocarbon industry, targeting the oil and gas companies that have a presence in Qatar.

The Energy City project, originally sponsored by Gulf Finance House, is a $2.6 billion project which was launched in March 2006.

It is divided into two phases ECQ1 and ECQ2. ECQ1 will house corporate offices and other business related infrastructure and the second phase ECQ2 would provide residential facilities to these Corporates having base in ECQ1.-TradeArabia News Service