Calyon acted as financial adviser, mandated lead arranger and USD hedging coordinator for the USD 1,045 million Zayed University Campus (Abu Dhabi) project. This transaction was closed on November 24th, 2009.

The financing was oversubscribed by a club of six international leading banks (Calyon, BTMU, Société Général, Natixis, Royal Bank of Scotland, BIIS), four conventional local lenders (National Bank of Abu Dhabi, First Gulf Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Union National Bank) and an Islamic Abu Dhabi based institution (Al Hilal Bank). The financing is split between USD (38%) and UAE-DirhamName of a unit of currency, usually a silver coin, used in the past in several Muslim countries and still used in some Muslim countries, such as Morocco and United Arab Emirates.
(62%).

The deal has brought some innovative features with the introduction of a mezzanine debt tranche of USD 80 million and a ShariaIslamic law as revealed in the Quran and through the example of Prophet Muhammad.
A Sharia compliant product meets the requirements of Islamic law.
Sharia Board is the committee of Islamic scholars available to an Islamic financial institution for guidance and supervision in the development of Sharia compliant products. Islamic compliant commodity MurabahaA form of credit which enables customers to make a purchase without having to take out an interest bearing loan. The bank buys an item and then sells it on to the customer on a deferred basis.
  facility of USD 150 million, equivalent in Dirham.

The financial close of Zayed University Campus follows the precedent Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi Campus. Calyon also acted in this project as financial adviser, mandated lead arranger and hedging coordinator.

The Zayed University project is the second infrastructure project in Abu Dhabi and the Gulf Cooperation Council region featuring a true PPPPublic-Private Partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies.-type structure with the absence of an explicit backstop from the Government of Abu Dhabi and with lenders taking construction and Operation & Maintenance risk. This project is three times bigger than the Paris Sorbonne Abu Dhabi one.

This transaction was awarded twice "Middle East PPP Deal of the Year" by both Project Finance International and Euromoney.