AlBaraka Türk, one of the pioneers in the field of interest-free banking in Turkey, has reported the success of its syndicated Murabaha financing facility.

Due to the oversubscription, Albaraka Türk has decided to increase the facility size from $150 million to $213 million, a statement said.

Bank ABC Islamic, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital Limited, Qatar Islamic Bank QSC and Standard Chartered Bank (collectively the initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners) were appointed to arrange the facility.

Bank ABC Islamic acted as coordinator and investment agent on the facility.  

The facility received a good response from the market with 12 institutions participating from GCC, Europe and Mena, the statement said.

The facility has been structured as a Shari’a compliant Murabaha facility with a 370 days tenor, and a profit margin of 125 basis points per annum over 3-month Libor.

The Facility has given AlBaraka Türk the opportunity to broaden and diversify its funding base, develop new bank relationships and strengthen existing ones. The proceeds will be used to expand its financing activities in Turkey, said the statment.

AlBaraka Türk was founded by AlBaraka Banking Group, Bahrain (ABG), one of the prominent groups of the Middle East, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and local partners (Alharthy Family). As of December 31, 2016, 66 per cent of it shares were held by international shareholders (ABG: 54.06pc; IDB: 7.84pc; Alharthy Family: 3.46pc; Others: 0.64pc), 9.16pc by local shareholders and 24.84pc are publicly traded on Borsa Istanbul.  – TradeArabia News Service