Clifford Chance

Firm also advises on seven award-winning transactions

Clifford Chance is proud to announce that the Firm has been named Banking & Finance Legal Adviser of the Year at the prestigious Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Awards in 2022. The awards bring together the industry's most high-profile figures to celebrate the most innovative and ground-breaking transactions from sovereign, corporate and financial institution issuers and borrowers in the Middle East.
Seven transactions closed by the banking and finance and capital markets teams during the past year were also awarded 'deal of the year' recognitions, including:

• Sovereign, Supra & Agency Bond Deal of the Year: Awarded to the Federal Government of the United Arab Emirates in connection with their issuance of a USD 4bn 144a/RegS Triple-Tranche Senior Unsecured Bond. Clifford Chance advised the Ministry of Finance of the UAE as Issuer.
• Bank/FI Bond Deal of the Year: Awarded to Saudi National Bank in connection with the USD 1.25bn RegS Perpetual NC6 Tier 1 Sukuk. Clifford Chance advised the Joint Lead Managers/Bookrunners Citi, Emirates NBD, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, MUFG, NCB Capital and Standard Chartered Bank.
• M&A/Acquisition Finance Deal of the Year: Awarded to EIG Pearl Holdings in connection with the USD 12.4bn Multi-Tranche Acquisition Bridge-to-Bond Project Finance Loan. The sponsors on the transaction were EIG Global Energy Partners, Mubadala Investment Company, Silk Road Fund, Hassana, Samsung Asset Management and Saudi Aramco. Clifford Chance advised Mandated Lead Arrangers Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Bank of China, Credit Agricole CIB, Standard Chartered, Agricultural Bank of China, ICBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis and Riyad Bank.
• Equity Capital Markets Deal of the Year: Awarded to ACWA Power in connection with their USD1.2bn Initial Public Offering and listing on the Saudi Stock Exchange. AS&H and Clifford Chance advised ACWA Power as Issuer.
• ESG Bond Deal of the Year: Awarded to APICORP in connection with their USD 750m 144a/RegS Senior Unsecured Green Bond. Clifford Chance advised Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners Barclays, BofA Securities, Credit Agricole CIB, HSBC, JP Morgan, LBBW, Nomura and Standard Chartered Bank.
• ESG Loan Deal of the Year: Awarded to Etihad Airways in connection with its USD 1.2bn Sustainability-Linked Loan Facility tied to ESG targets. Clifford Chance advised Etihad Airways as Borrower.
• Global Bank/FI Sukuk Deal of the Year: Awarded to Kuveyt Türk Katilim Bankasi USD 350m RegS ESG-Compliant Tier 2 Regulatory Capital Sukuk. Clifford Chance and Çiftçi Attorney Partnership advised Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners Bank ABC, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, Citi and HSBC

Clifford Chance's Middle East Banking and Finance team has had an impressive year, garnering no less than 15 deal and team awards so far in 2022 from leading organisations such as Islamic Finance News and IJ Global in addition to Bonds, Loans & Sukuk. The team has for years also been consistently ranked in Band 1 across all of The Legal 500, Chambers and IFLR 1000 legal directories.