Dentons advises lenders on US$1.5 billion refinancing facility to QNB

Dubai-Dentons has advised a syndicate of international and regional lenders on the US$1.5 billion unsecured syndicated term loan facility to QNB, the largest financial institution in the Middle East and Africa. The five-year refinancing attracted strong participation from global and regional banks and was substantially oversubscribed.

The facility was arranged by a group of leading international banks, with:

• DBS, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acting as Joint Global Coordinators
• Barclays, DBS, HSBC, Mizuho, JPMorgan and SCB as Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners (IMLABs). DBS acted as Documentation Coordinator, HSBC as Syndication Coordinator and Mizuho as Facility Agent.

Dentons advised the lender group on all aspects of the financing and the subsequent syndication process, involving the transfer of participations by six original lenders to a group of new lenders.

"We are proud to have supported the lenders on this landmark refinancing for QNB," said Stephen Knight, Partner and Head of the Middle East Banking and Finance practice at Dentons. "The transaction highlights the continued confidence of the international lending community in the Qatari market and demonstrates Dentons' long-standing expertise in advising on large, cross-border syndicated financings across the region, as well as capitalising on our regional offering in advising on Qatari law issues."

The Dentons team was led by Stephen Knight, Partner and Head of the Middle East Banking and Finance practice, based in the firm's Abu Dhabi office, and Andrew Gallagher, Associate, based in Dubai, with Qatari law advice from Gabriel Olufemi, Partner, based in Doha and Samer El-Husseini, Associate, based in Doha.

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