Clifford Chance LLP advises on the first real estate sukuk in Makkah, KSA

Notes and media contacts

Clifford Chance is one of the world's leading law firms, helping clients achieve their goals by combining the highest global standards with local expertise. The firm has unrivalled scale and depth of legal resources across the key markets of the Middle East, Americas, Asia and Europe and focuses on the core areas of commercial activity: capital markets; corporate and M&A; finance and banking; real estate; tax; pensions and employment; litigation and dispute resolution. Clifford Chance has 29 offices in 20 countries and 3,800 legal advisers.

The capital markets practice comprises over 422 partners and lawyers who concentrate on securities transactions and other products sold into the capital markets. The practice is founded on a full-service US and UK securities law capability, complemented by local securities law expertise in each of the key financial centres.

The combination of local knowledge with an international perspective enables us to provide practical, integrated legal advice covering the full spectrum of global capital raising activities including public and private domestic and international offerings of traditional debt and equity securities as well as convertible and other derivative and structured securities.

Consistently ranked as the 'best legal practice for securitisation' by key commentators, the Clifford Chance International Securitisation Group is at the forefront of the securitisation markets across the world. The Group advises most of the leading market participants and provides an in-depth knowledge of complex issues relating to the securitisation of a broad spectrum of assets.

Our clients include issuers, originators, arrangers, managers, investors and other finance providers, trustees, rating agencies, monoline insurers and swap counterparties from a variety off industries including energy, transport, infrastructure projects, and real estate.

Clifford Chance achieved the highest number of top tier rankings of any firm in the Chambers Global 2008 Directory, cited in 20 international tables. This independent analysis focuses on firms' legal ability, professional conduct, client service, and commercial awareness, and these rankings provide outstanding recognition for the firm's breadth of expertise and consistency of quality across global markets.

For further information about this release contact
Andrew Coats on +44 (0)20 7006 2574
Qudeer Latif on +971 (0)4 362 0675
Michael Osborne (PR Manager) on +44 (0)20 7006 5695