KARACHI: Faysal Bank together with Meezan Bank has arranged an Islamic finance facility - Sukuk for Amreli Steel in the amount of Rs1,000 million. Other banks participating in the consortium are SAPICO, Pak Kuwait, Bank Alfalah, UBL Ameen, Habib Metro, Soneri Bank, Dawood Islamic, Askari Bank and CresBank.

This is the first sukuk facility for a company from the steel sector in Pakistan and will provide innovative and diverse funding to support Amreli’s significant growth plans. This sukuk issue is a seven-year facility, a press release said.

Amreli Steels (Private) Limited is one of the largest manufacturers of steel reinforcement bars in Pakistan. Its plant uses the most modern hot re-rolling technologies in the industry and is capable of producing high quality straight steel bars. The company was operating with an annual production capacity of about 74,000 tonnes up until 2006.

In 2007, ASL embarked upon an expansion programme to enhance its capacity to 150,000 tonnes, which has come online this year.

The signing ceremony was held in Karachi in the presence of senior officials from the financial institutions participating in this transaction. Speaking at the occasion, Abbas Akberali, President Amreli Steels said, “Pakistan has great potential for the steel industry and the industry still has a lot of room for further acceleration.”

“Faysal Bank is pleased to support the first sukuk facility in the steel industry,” said Nauman Ansari, Faysal Bank’s Country Head of Corporate and Investment Banking. “By using innovative financing structures such as Islamic debt instruments, we will help in enabling the steel sector to access greater financing amounts through a diverse investor base in a more efficient manner