Citigroup, Others Loan $1 Billion To Dolphin Energy
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Citigroup and HSBC Holdings were among 14 lenders to sign a $1 billion Islamic loan with Dolphin Energy to build infrastructure needed to transport gas from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
The loan, which is part of a $3.5 billion debt package for the project, is compliant with Islamic Sharia law, which bans charging interest as usury, Dolphin Energy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Dolphin “has always been interested in offering banks an Islamically structured investment option,” the company’s chief executive, Ahmed al-Sayegh, said in the statement. The loan is “by far the largest Sharia-compliant oil and gas transaction to date,” an executive vice president at one of the 14 lenders, Dubai Islamic Bank, Aref Kooheji, said.
International banks including Citigroup and HSBC are competing for a greater share of the market for financial assets that comply with Islamic law, estimated to be worth between $300 billion and $400 billion by the International Monetary Fund.
