Bahraini sovereign fund Mumtalakat has signed a $500 million, five-year loan with a group of banks, sources aware of the matter said on Sunday, with the cash to be used for general business purposes and to refinance existing debt.

The loan is being provided by the same banks which arranged a sukuk issue by the fund in November: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi , BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered, as well as local institutions Arab Banking Corp and National Bank of Bahrain.

Signed just before the end of 2014, the loan is structured as a revolving credit facility.

Mumtalakat didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The sources declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to media.

The state-owned fund was last in the loan market in September 2013, when it completed a $250 million revolving credit facility through five Bahraini and regional banks.

It sold a $600 million, seven-year Islamic bond in November at 205 basis points over midswaps.

One of the smaller sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf region, Mumtalakat had $7.1 billion of assets under management at the end of September. It holds stakes in 40 firms in the kingdom's non-oil sector, including Bahrain Telecommunications Co (Batelco) and Aluminium Bahrain (Alba). – Reuters