The largest syndicated banking facility in Kazakhstan

Arab Bank plc (Arab Bank) announced that the US$777 million 1-year Syndicated Trade Finance Facility for Bank TuranAlem successfully closed on Sep. 20th 2005- with an oversubscription of 160%. Arab Bank was appointed by Bank TuranAlem as a Mandated Lead Arranger and the Bookrunner for the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) as part of a global banking consortium. The other four Mandated Lead Arrangers in the global banking consortium for the facility are Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, HVB Group, J.P. Morgan plc and SANPAOLO IMI S.p.A. Bank TuranAlem mandated three banks as Bookrunners specific to each bank's expertise in its geographic locations. Arab Bank was mandated bookrunner for the Middle East and North Africa Region, JP Morgan plc for Europe and the Americas and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi for Asia. The Borrower under the loan is TuranAlem Finance B.V. and Bank TuranAlem acts as a Guarantor. The facility was initially launched at an amount of US$300 million and following an extremely well received syndication, which resulted in an oversubscription as the total commitments exceeded US$900 million; the Borrower elected to increase the Facility amount to US$777 million. This is the largest amount raised by a Kazakh Bank of this nature to date, with total commitments received in general from 73 banks from over 20 countries.