| Kippreport.com

Kuwait’s Zain seeks $1.5 bln loan -bankers

September 23, 2010 2:38 by Reuters

Kuwait’s Zain , the Gulf Arab region’s third-largest telecoms group by value, has approached banks for a $1.5 billion syndicated loan, banking sources close to the deal said.

The deal is likely to be structured as a conventional financing rather an an Islamic loan, one of the bankers added, and will be new money rather than a refinancing, two bankers said.

Zain’s previous loan was a $1.2 billion Islamic financing that signed in April 2008.

That murabaha financing, arranged by bookrunners BNP Paribas, Calyon and DBS, matured in December 2008 and was priced at 75 basis points over LIBOR, according to Thomson Reuters LPC data.

In June, Zain and Bharti Airtel closed a $9 billion deal for the Kuwaiti firm’s African assets excluding Sudan and Morocco.

(Reporting by Christopher Mangham)

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