The UAE’s Al-Futtaim Group and Qatar Islamic Bank have completed the QR3.7bn ($1.6bn) financing for the development of the Doha Festival City mall.

The deal has been worked on for most of the past year, before finally reaching financial close on 25 June. Debt is split between a QR2.8bn conventional bank tranche and a QR1.2bn Islamic bank tranche. Both have a tenor of 10 years and are priced at 150 basis points above the Qatar Central Bank reference rate.

QInvest acted as financial adviser on the deal and the bank group consists of Qatar’s Commercial Bank of Qatar, Barwa Bank, Ahli Bank. Al-Khaliji Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, International Bank of Qatar, Qatar National Bank and Qatar International Islamic Bank.

“This is one of the biggest private sector deals around in Qatar at the moment and it’s a real estate transaction, so it has taken some time to get it to financial close,” says one banker involved in the deal.