Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Tamweel Aloula, one of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s leading finance companies, on the establishment of its inaugural Additional Tier 1 Capital perpetual Sukuk issuance programme and its first issuance under the programme.

The programme is the first-of-its-kind to be established by a non-bank financial institution in the Kingdom.

The programme will allow for Sukuk to be issued as Additional Tier 1 Capital, which can assist the company in satisfying certain of its regulatory capital requirements. This tool has previously only been utilised by banks in the Kingdom.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team in the Middle East advising Tamweel Aloula was led by partner Hamed Afzal and included partner Mohammed Altammami, senior associate Sabah Shelton, senior associate Faisal Aldhayaan and trainee solicitors Grace Carlson and Michael Wilson.

Hamed said:

“It’s a huge privilege to be able to assist our client Tamweel Aloula with this first-of-its-kind Sukuk programme for a non-bank financial institution in Saudi Arabia. Any new initiative throws up interesting legal challenges and it has been hugely rewarding for our team to be able to work together with the client to overcome these, using innovative thinking, and to help pave the way for the future development of this sector.”

Impact46 was appointed as the financial advisor and arranger in relation to the establishment of the programme and the debut issuance.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s global Islamic finance lawyers have long-standing experience in delivering pioneering legal advice on Islamic finance transactions for Islamic financial institutions, conventional banks and corporates. With more than 30 years of experience in Islamic finance law, the firm’s lawyers have a wealth of knowledge across a range of Shariah-compliant structures, including market-leading experience in Sukuk transactions, Murabaha, Istisna’a, Ijara and Musharakah financings and Takaful deals.