The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) has signed a 91-million Emirati dirhams ($24.77 million) Islamic leasing facility with HSBC to finance its new Muroor Street and Sheikh Zayed Sports City cooling plants in Abu Dhabi.
The transaction was structured by HSBC Amanah Finance as an ijarah (leasing) contract in compliance with Shariah law and was arranged and underwritten by HSBC Bank Middle East. The banking consortium supporting the deal comprises Mashreqbank, United Arab Bank and The Saudi British Bank, which is 40 percent owned by HSBC.
Tabreed aims to build, manage, operate and own district-cooling plants in all the UAE, serving customers such as the UAE armed forces, municipalities and real estate developers. Tabreed is the first company in the Middle East to commercialize district-cooling technology.
This transaction represents HSBC's first Islamically-structured facility in Abu Dhabi. “There is a significant corporate demand in Abu Dhabi for Islamic financing. We feel that our growing reputation for innovation and success in the area of Islamic finance, together with the Tabreed transaction, provides us an important launching pad in this key market,” commented Charles Moncrieff, senior manager at the Abu Dhabi Branch of HSBC Bank Middle East.
HSBC Bank Middle East is the largest and most widely represented international bank in the Middle East, with 30 branches throughout the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Autonomous Area, including an offshore banking unit in Bahrain.
Regional coverage is strengthened by another member of the HSBC Group HSBC, Bank Egypt SAE, and by its associated companies, The Saudi British Bank and British Arab Commercial Bank Limited. In addition to its Middle Eastern network, the Bank has a branch in London, UK, and a representative office in Tehran, Iran.
HSBC Bank Middle East is a principal member of the HSBC Group which, with some 7,000 offices in 81 countries and territories and assets of $696 billion as at December 31, 2001, is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
