The eight banks are Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau, Libyan Arab Foreign Bank, National Bank of Bahrain, National Bank of Kuwait, RZBand Societe Generale. The five-year facility has a step-up structure starting at 37.5 basis points (bp) for the first three years and 40 bp for the final two.

A number of other transactions are in the market. Syndication has been launched on a $150 million facility for Ahli United Bank London, lead arranged by Commerzbank, HSBC and Lloyds-TSB. When that deal has cleared the market, syndication is set to be launched on a $150 million facility for Bank of Kuwait & the Middle East, arranged by ABC, Gulf International Bank (GIB)and Commerzbank.

Samba Financial Groupheld a second bank presentation in London in late October for its $500 million term loan, on which general syndication is due to close on 30 October. Lead arrangers are Arab National Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, GIB, JP Morgan, Qatar National Bankand Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). A $150 million term loan for First Gulf Bank, lead arranged by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Calyon, GIB and SCB, is due to be signed in early November and is likely to be upsized to $175 million.