Doha - Arab Bank, among several of its elite regional and international peers, has signed a bank consortium agreement to arrange a $1.35bn loan facility for the benefit of Agility (The Public Warehousing Company KSC).
Arab Bank's participation in the loan arrangement was at the highest level, playing the role of Mandated Lead Arranger. Partners in the consortium included Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, DBS Bank Limited, Deutsche Bank AG London Branch, HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, BNP Paribas, WestLB AG London Branch, Goldman Sachs International and JP Morgan.
The loan facility will be used to finance an acquisition, in addition to investments and a number of mega projects Agility will implement in the field of logistic contracting (warehouse management), fleet management, international freight, transportation, inventory management and other solutions and value added services.
Arab Bank's Chairman & CEO, Abdel Hamid Shoman said the strategy of Arab Bank includes plans and programs aimed at enhancing its role in serving the various production sectors, characterised with an investment attractive climate, especially the services sector, a major component of the Arab economy.
Shoman stressed that Arab Bank continues to offer banking services packages to accelerate investment growth, in light of the key role the banking sector is playing in funding vital development projects.
Headquartered in Kuwait, Agility (The Public Warehousing Company KSC) was established in 1979 to offer a series of integrated services and logistics solutions to companies and government agencies, including logistic contracting, fleet management, international freight, transportation, inventory management and other comprehensive solutions and added-value services.
Following its privatisation in 1997, Agility successfully transformed itself from being a regional industrial real estate and warehousing provider into one of the top ten logistics companies globally.
The company owns close to 10 million sq meters of warehousing space and a fleet of more than 5,000 transportation and distribution vehicles worldwide.
© The Peninsula 2007
