MANAMA: Clifford Chance has been named Best Islamic Legal Advisory Firm by Euromoney Islamic Finance Awards for the fifth time, more times than any other law firm.
“We are honoured to be recognised by Euromoney as the world’s leading Islamic Finance practice. The award is a testament to the hard work and efforts of our specialist Islamic finance team of lawyers who are based cross Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australasia, the Middle East and Africa,” Global Head of Islamic Finance, Qudeer Latif, said.
“It is also pleasing to see our clients’ work recognised in this way. We are proud to work on many pioneering and landscape changing transactions supported by our dedicated Islamic finance teams who offer far-reaching and best-in-class execution capability,” Latif, added.
“No other law firm worldwide appears on a greater range of important Islamic deals than Clifford Chance, and no other firm is consulted by so many of the regulators and standard-setters whose decisions will shape the industry’s development”
The Clifford Chance team advised on a range of cutting-edge deals in the past year including Ma’aden (Saudi Arabian Mining Company) SAR9 billion re-drawable murabaha facility, the largest SAR-denominated revolving credit facility, and the largest single-tranche syndicated corporate credit facility ever concluded in Saudi Arabia; The Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil (GACA) on US$4 billion sukuk certificates issuance the first sukuk issuance by a Saudi Government entity with a guarantee from the Saudi Ministry of Finance; the Government of Turkey’s US$1.25 billion second sukuk (the same team worked on the inaugural and first-of-its kind US$1.5 sukuk); RMB1 billion inaugural issuance from Axiata’s US$1.5 billion multi-currency sukuk issuance programme (Axiata Dim Sum sukuk), a landmark issuance programme which is one of Asia Pacific’s first internationally rated multi-currency sukuk issuance programmes and Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (MEXIM), on the establishment of its US$1 billion multicurrency sukuk programme. The programme was arranged by BNP Paribas, CIMB, HSBC and Maybank. The programme is based on the Islamic principle of wakala, the first of its kind to use this type of wakala structure in Asia.
Additionally, the Firm has been involved in several programmes concerning the industry’s development. Clifford Chance is lead counsel and law firm responsible for drafting the ISDA-IIFM Ta’hawwut Master Agreement (TMA) and has recently advised ISDA and IIFM, including the IIFM Scholars, to prepare and finalise the Profit Rate Swap Confirmation templates for use with the TMA. Furthermore, Clifford Chance prepared and circulated drafts of Cross Currency Swaps Confirmation templates for use with the TMA for market comment and was also counsel to IIFM for the development of the Master Agreement for Treasury Placement.