Abu Dhabi, Asharq Al-Awsat- in an effort meet its international expansion plans, Emirates Telecommunications Corporation- Etisalat- has mandated four banks- Barclays Bank PLC, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank AG, and HSBC Bank PLC- to arrange a US$3bn Revolving Line of Credit for a period of one year with a one year extension option at the decision of Etisalat. This Revolving Line of Credit is underwritten by the 4 banks on an equal basis.

This new initiative enables Etisalat to select among multiple currencies and multiple maturity periods for any drawdown of the facility. The Revolving Line of Credit is a multipurpose facility that can be used to finance any activity of the Corporation decided by the management, including but not limited to investments and acquisitions of target companies.

Salem Al Sharhan, Chief Financial Officer of Etisalat, said: “We appreciate the confidence placed in us by these large multinational banks, and their readiness to provide us with the best services to finance our expansion and operations through the coming period.”

“Etisalat is ranked as the 6th largest Corporation in the Middle East by market capitalization, and has been able to achieve record annual profits. This new Revolving Line of Credit will help save time and give a push to our ambitions to be among the world’s largest telecom operators, entering strategic and important markets that will help bring profitability to our stakeholders”, he added.