Amlak Finance Wins IFN’s ‘Restructuring Deal Of The Year’ Award

Dubai, UAE, 3 March 2015:  Amlak Finance PJSC, a leading specialized real estate financier in the Middle East, has won a prestigious global award for its financial restructuring at the “Islamic Finance News” awards this year.The IFN Awards honour the best in the Islamic Finance industry including the most groundbreaking transactions of the year. The Award winners represent the highest excellence achieved in the Islamic Finance landscape.

Amlak closed a complex financial restructuring with its financiers in November 2014 involving a variety of Islamic financing and deposit structures including Murabahas, Mudarabas and bilateral and syndicated Wakalahs. Under the restructuring, Amlak took certain impairments on its real estate investment portfolio. The Company also termed out its short term facilities into a 12-year fixed profit facility. As part of the deal, an appropriate security package was also granted to the Company’s Financiers.

Arif Alharmi, Chief Executive Officer, Amlak Finance PJSC, said; ”The restructuring allowed a healthy equity position and gearing ratio for the Company to meet all regulatory requirements, and to create a solid foundation for its recovery and future growth. We are very pleased to have won this award which reflects our dedication and our innovative towards achieving a successful restructuring.”

The balance sheet restructuring addressed many challenges, key among which was the reduction of Amlak’s total Investment Deposit liabilities. This was achieved through the Company’s Financiers converting part of their facility into a convertible contingent Instrument. The Instrument with Mudarabah features allows the Financiers to benefit from realized value growth in Amlak’s underlying property portfolio over the life of the Instrument. Any amount of the Instrument which has not been redeemed by maturity can be converted into Company’s equity. The Instrument is an innovative and bespoke feature of this transaction.