Bin Ladin borrows to finance $6b seven towers

Dubai: Saudi Arabia's Bin Ladin Group is raising a $500 million Islamic loan for a $6 billion project to build seven towers with shops and apartments just outside the holy shrine in Makkah, two bankers said.

The family-owned Bin Ladin Group is developing the Abraj Al Bayt project near the Grand Mosque in Makkah. The towers will have residential and retail facilities for about 65,000 people, their floors covering 1.4 square kilometre - an area roughly the size of Monaco.

The five-year loan complies with Islam's ban on lending interest and is structured as an Ijara, or lease agreement, two officials at two arranging banks said, asking not to be identified.

ABC Islamic, Arab Banking Corporation, Samba Financial Group, Riyad Bank, Commercial Bank of Qatar, Boubyan Bank and Arab National Bank are arranging the facility.

Syndication is due to close in mid-December.

Abraj Al Bayt is scheduled to be completed by 2009, a Bin Ladin executive, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.