Linklaters’ Dubai office acts as a hub for the firm’s activities in the Middle East. Working closely with colleagues in the UK, United States and other global offices, the firm provides a closely integrated and multi-jurisdictional service.
Extensive experience of advising on market-shaping deals in the UAE and throughout the Middle East, combined with Linklaters’ global resources, allows the firm to meet the demands of leading regional and global companies and financial institutions.
Linklaters in Dubai is acknowledged as a market leader for corporate/M&A, capital markets, banking, project finance, real estate, funds and Islamic finance transactions. The firm’s track record includes acting on some of the most significant and innovative deals that the region has seen in recent years.
Recent transactions include advising
- the finance parties, including seven export credit agencies, 31 commercial banks the Islamic Finance and the Public Investment Fund, on the multi-sourced financing (including approximately US$8.5bn of senior debt) for Saudi Aramco Total Refinery and Petrochemical Company’s greenfield refining and petrochemical project in Saudi Arabia. The total project costs are over US$14bn and the Project represents one of the few Greenfield refineries to make it to market in recent years (Project Finance deal of the year, IFLR Middle East Awards, 2010; Middle East Oil & Gas Deal of the Year, Euromoney, 2010).
- the board of Kingdom and a subsidiary of Kingdom Holding Company and the Independent Committee of the board of Kingdom Hotel Investments of a recommended cash offer to be made by Bidco (M&A deal of the Year, IFLR Middle East Awards, 2010).
- JP Morgan on the du rights issue (Equity deal of the Year, IFLR Middle East Awards, 2010)
- RBS on its sale of its retail and commercial banking businesses in the UAE to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC
- mandated lead arrangers and the lenders on the US$1.5 billion term facility for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank P.J.S.C – the largest syndicated loan to a Middle Eastern financial institution
- National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) P.J.S.C on Tabreed 08 Financing Corporation’s AED 1.7 billion Sukuk issuance, in the form of Sharia’a compliant trust certificates mandatorily exchangeable into ordinary shares of Tabreed –the first mandatorily convertible Sukuk ever to be issued
- Advising Borse Dubai Limited, a subsidiary of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, on a US$1.1bn refinancing transaction. The transaction comprises of a margin loan facility and the sale of a portion of Borse Dubai Limited's 30% stake in The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. The margin loan facility is secured by the balance of the NASDAQ shares and Borse Dubai Limited's 20% stake in the London Stock Exchange Group plc. (January 2011)
"One of their strengths is their London office and how Dubai links in with London quite seamlessly on the big international deals"
IFLR 2009; General, U.A.E
