Our Islamic Finance and Investment lawyers understand that Ijara, Murabaha, Istisna'a, Mudaraba, Musharaka and Sukuk structures, amongst other contractual relationships permitted by Shari'ah, all may come into play in order to achieve our clients' desired results.

The following is a representative listing of Islamic Finance and Investment transactions undertaken by members of the Sonnenschein team (including transactions in which those lawyers were involved prior to joining our team).

Our lawyers have acted as counsel to:

• A Qatar-based Islamic bank in developing a suite of Shari'ah-compliant retail investment products.
   
• Private equity funds affiliated with a leading Bahrain-based investment bank in connection with the purchase of the assets of a watercraft business.
   
• Falcon Real Estate Investments, Ltd. in connection with two U.S. Shari'ah-compliant real estate acquisitions.
   
• A trade finance company in connection with the development and implementation of Shari'ah-compliant structures for factoring and re-factoring operations pertaining to goods and services.
   
• A leading GCC-based investment house in connection with tax-efficient cross-border investments in, and the financings of, a hotel fund and the construction and operation of a series of hotel properties.
   
• Private equity funds affiliated with a leading Bahrain-based investment bank in connection with the purchase of the equity ownership of a residential construction company.
   
• The first open-end Islamic real estate investment fund (a tax-efficient fund that invests in commercial real estate projects globally using Shari'ah-compliant structures). The fund has completed Shari'ah-compliant acquisitions of properties in the United States, England, France, Luxembourg, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland and our lawyers advised on (among others):
   
  
  • a £330 million Shari'ah-compliant cross-collateralized pool refinancing of nine commercial office properties in England and Scotland.
     
  • the acquisition of a commercial office property in Farnborough, England.
     
  • the acquisition, financing and operation of a commercial office real estate project in Neiderbipp, Switzerland.
     
• A Shari'ah-compliant real estate investment fund in connection with a cross-collateralized mezzanine (redemption and working capital) financing of nineteen previous financings of commercial office buildings in the United States.
   
• A Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank in connection with the acquisition of a controlling stake in a U.S.-based technology company with global operations.
   
• A GCC-based investor group in connection with the acquisition of residential apartment complexes, and the conversion of those complexes to condominiums, in the Southeastern United States.
   
• A Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank in connection with the acquisition of assets from a leading U.S. warehouse and distribution facility construction and management company. Both equity and financing components were structured to maximize tax efficiencies.  
   
• Advising an Islamic investment bank based in Bahrain in the structuring of an offshore investment complex to facilitate the private placement of a nine-figure US$ equity investment.
   
• Numerous Shari'ah-compliant real estate funds making Shari'ah-compliant investments on an all-cash basis and subsequently restructuring the financing of those acquisitions.