Islamic Finance

We collaborate across a number of core practice areas, including banking, project finance, derivatives, capital markets, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, investment funds, and dispute resolution to deliver innovative structures that meet the needs of investors and clients. 

We have structured groundbreaking transactions and were the first movers in a number of the most widely used Islamic financing products in the market today. We can develop, document, and negotiate all of the most common structures, including murabaha, mudaraba, ijara, wakala, musharaka, istithmar, manafa, and istisna — whether on a standalone basis, in combination with other products, on a wholly Islamic basis, or as a multi-tranche offering with conventional financing arrangements. Our prominence in the sukuk market is grounded in constantly evolving commercial and regulatory insights drawn from both our local and global vantage points, with lawyers based across the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the US.

Latham & Watkins' transactional experience includes structuring, documenting and advising on:

• The key Islamic contracts of Murabaha, Modaraba, Tawarruq, Ijara, Wakala, Musharaka, Salam and Istisna
• Shari’ah-compliant investment funds, including private equity, venture capital and real estate funds
• Sukuks
• M&A transactions involving Shari’ah-compliant vendors and targets
• Project finance (either on a wholly Islamic, or multi-tranche, basis)
• Shari’ah-compliant asset finance, including aviation and ship finance
• Interbank treasury instruments for IFIs
• Islamic mezzanine and structured finance
• Tax issues relating to Islamic finance transactions
• Restructuring and ‘amend-and-extends’ of Islamic facilities
• Islamic transaction dispute resolution
• Shari’ah-compliant structured finance and derivative products, including profit rate swaps

The firm's lawyers have been involved in a number of groundbreaking Islamic finance transactions, including:

• Dana Gas PJSC, the largest independent oil and gas company in the UAE, in the restructuring of its US$1 billion Trust Certificates (sukuk al-mudarabah), the first restructuring of its kind in the Middle East
• Saudi Electricity Company’s issuance of US$1 billion Sukuk Certificates due 2023 and US$1 billion Sukuk Certificates due 2043, the first international 30 year Sukuk issuance by any issuer
• The US$4 billion State of Qatar Sukuk, the largest Sukuk for a sovereign issuer and the largest US-Dollar-denominated Sukuk issuance to date, awarded Qatar Deal of the Year by Islamic Finance news 2013
• Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC’s perpetual and Basel III compliant tier 1 Sukuk issuance, awarded Mudaraba Deal of the Year 2013 and UAE Deal of the Year 2013 by Islamic Finance news and received an honorable mention by Asian-MENA Counsel
• First Malaysian Ringgit Sukuk Programme established by a Saudi issuer
• First-ever Shari’ah-compliant private equity fund domiciled in the Qatar Financial Centre
• The US$1.25 billion Sukuk under the Government of Dubai’s US$5 billion Trust Certificate Issuance Programme
• First unrated, non-sovereign public Mudaraba Sukuk issued by SIPCHEM in Saudi Arabia
• The innovative airtime sale facility for Mobily and the SAR7.5 billion refinancing of this facility in 2012