Calyon and its affiliated bank Banque Saudi Fransi acted as Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers of a USD 2.9 billion medium term Islamic financing by Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates Telecom operator and Mobily, its Saudi Arabian subsidiary. Calyon was also Bookrunner of this operation. The purpose of the financing is to support Mobily's development plans in Saudi Arabia. Mobily was awarded the title of the "Fastest Growing Mobile Operator in Middle East and North Africa 2005" by the GSM Association. This facility is the largest ever syndicated Islamic loan and one of the biggest telecom transactions in Saudi Arabia and in the MENA region in 2006/2007. The financing is also very innovative: it is structured Islamicallly and secured by ''airtime'' sold by Mobily. It is the first time such a structure is being used in an Islamic financing. This success for Calyon was made possible thanks to an excellent cooperation with Banque Saudi Fransi and the seamless teamwork between Calyon Gulf Client coverage team, the PRC Telecom group, the Global Loan Syndication team and the Islamic Banking unit.