Project Thuraya

Challenge

A second-generation Saudi industrial family had won a large-scale transmission mandate tied to one of the Vision 2030 grid-expansion programmes overseen by the National Centre for Privatization & PPP (NCP). Domestic Saudi banks were supportive but constrained by sector concentration limits under SAMA prudential guidance; every additional drawdown risked breaching a SAMA large-exposure threshold at one or more relationship banks. The family's second concern was not financial but cultural: majlis governance meant no information could travel outside a defined circle, so a public tender or EPC-tendered financing was not acceptable.

Approach

LMA took the mandate on a confidential, single-source basis. We shaped a conventional-and-Islamic hybrid structure aligned with AAOIFI FAS 30 treatment of Istisna'a receivables, distributed the facility across three international institutions with complementary MENA transmission appetite, and sequenced drawdowns to match construction milestones and the project's NCP-approved commercial operation date. Documentation proceeded on a single Arabic master set with English counterpart; lender counsel in London and Riyadh worked in parallel. The family's majlis was briefed twice; no board paper travelled outside that room.