Arab Bank Groups signs financing agreement for Zain

The financing will be used for general corporate purposes for Zain, which is a pioneer mobile telecommunications and leading wireless services provider.

Mr. Abdul Hamid Shoman, Chairman & CEO of Arab Bank commented, "Arab Bank's participation in the loan comes within the Bank's framework to be active within the local and Arab capital markets and to provide the necessary financing to support major investment projects with the services sector at the forefront."

Mr. Shoman pointed out that Arab Bank which has highly participated in financing numerous projects in the telecommunications sector most prominently in privatizing the Jordan Telecommunications, Saudi Telecommunications Union, Al Nawras for Omani Communications and the former MTC, is always looking to participate in accelerating the economic and social development in the Arab World.

Mr. Shoman also confirmed Arab Bank's vital role in providing for the financing needs of its clients in the different sectors and countries as part of its leading position in providing outstanding banking services on the regional level through its branch network spread out in 29 countries and which has reflected on the Bank gaining several awards the most recent being the Global Finance award as the Best Bank in Jordan and Yemen under the Best Emerging Markets Bank in the Middle East for 2008.

Zain started its operations in 1983 in Kuwait as a regional operator for mobile phones and the company has witnessed a massive growth over the past few years and is now aspiring to be at the forefront of telecommunications industry by the year 2011.

The Company now operates in 22 countries in Middle East and Africa with over 15,000 employees providing a comprehensive range of services to 42.4 million active individual and business customers. The company, by adopting a new strategy, aims at becoming one of the top ten global mobile operators by 2011. The main shareholders of the company are the Kuwait Investment Authority (24.7%), National Investment Company (18.2%) and the remaining 57.1% floating.

During the last year Arab Bank Group achieved its best financial performance over the past 77 years, where its profits exceeded the barrier of one billion dollars. In the first quarter, Arab Bank achieved $295m in profits, total shareholders equity of $7.1bn and a total assets of $40.5bn.