Although Asad Zafar, managing director of HSBC Amanah, stresses that the bank’s activities are wider than just project financing, its activities in this field were remarkable in the 11 months from December 2004 to November 2005.
Over this period, HSBC Amanah was involved in four project-finance related transactions with a total value of $1.88 billion. The biggest was QatarGas II, in which the bank acted as Islamic facility co-coordinator on the project’s $530 million Islamic tranche, as well as documentation bank and bookrunner.
HSBC Amanah was also mandated lead arranger and documentation agent for the $330 million Bapco plant expansion facility in Bahrain. Bridge financing was for a period of two years and was secured by the pledge of oil receivables from Bapco. Permanent financing will use the same structure with some additional structural features, including a crude oil supply agreement and a direct agreement between the government of Bahrain and the lenders. HSBC Amanah also participated in the $1 billion bridge financing facility for the Qatari/UAE Dolphin project, which represented the largest oil and gas Islamic financing in history.
Moving into less well known territory, the bank participated in Yemen’s $17.5 million ECA-backed Sabafon equipment import facility.