Qatar Telecom Secures $2 Billion Revolving Credit Facility

(This story was originally published Friday.)

CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones) State-controlled Qatar Telecom, or Qtel (QTEL.DO), said Friday it secured a new $2 billion dual-tranche revolving credit facility to lower its borrowing costs.

The telecom operator's original intention was to raise up to $1.5 billion by approaching its core relationship banks, it said in a regulatory filing to the London Stock Exchange.

"But due to an extraordinary response Qtel received commitments in the amount of $2.75 billion, leading to oversubscriptions of 83%," it said.

The deal is split between a $1.25 billion tranche due in 2013 and a $750 million tranche due in 2015.

The dual-tranche revolving credit facility will be used for general corporate purposes including a $2 billion credit line that matures in 2011.

Qtel is the first Gulf borrower to secure a syndicated corporate loan deal with a five-year tenor since September 2008.

Initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners on the new loan are BNP Paribas SA, DBS, Qatar National Bank, Societe Generale SA and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. Qatar National Bank acted as the financial adviser to Qtel.

The bookrunners were joined by Barclays PLC, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC, Samba Bank Ltd., SMBC, Standard Chartered Bank PLC, WestLB AG and Citibank as initial mandated lead arrangers ahead of launch of general syndication.

Qtel Wedneday reported first-quarter profit more than doubled to 1.21 billion Qatari riyals ($329.8 million) on a reduced royalty fee it pays to the government of QAR554 million.

-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]