Trowers & Hamlins advises on $300m GFH Islamic finance facility

The deal was three times oversubscribed and over 25% of the facility was placed with institutions from outside of the Middle East.

The facility is a commodity based master murabaha and replaces a one year US $90m facility established in May that Trowers & Hamlins also advised on.

GFH is increasing its focus on infrastructure investments outside of the Gulf area and hopes to generate the majority of its 2007 income from outside of the Gulf.

Neale Downes, Partner of Trowers & Hamlins said: "We are delighted to have worked with GFH on this transaction. What is particularly interesting is the level of interest this deal attracted from South East Asian financial institutions who are becoming increasingly active lenders and investors into this region."

Neale Downes also says that the level of oversubscription is a further indicator of the markets' confidence in GFH. In August GFH became the first Islamic investment bank to be given an investment grade rating of BBB- by Standard & Poors.

The facility was arranged by Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB) and WestLB AG London Branch (WestLB).