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Paul McViety

Partner
Head of Islamic Finance
About

Paul McViety is a Partner in the Finance, Projects & Restructuring (FPR) group of DLA Piper's Dubai office. He is also the head of the firm's Islamic Finance practice in the Middle East. Paul has almost 20 years' experience of advising on financing transactions, acting for both Islamic and conventional clients – including financial institutions, corporates, sponsors, developers, fund and asset managers, regulators and government entities.

Paul provides advice on a broad range of finance-related transactions: including bilateral and syndicated financings (Islamic or conventional), co-financings, project finance transactions (including complex multi-sourced financings), the financing of real estate, asset finance, trade finance, debt restructurings and debt capital markets (sukuk). His practice also extends to assisting clients in relation to Islamic (or Shari'a-compliant) funds or investments.

DLA Piper's Islamic finance practice extends beyond the Middle East region and has a global reach: requiring Paul and his team to play a leading role on any Islamic transactions involving other DLA Piper offices, including our offices across Europe and the United States.

Paul is recognised as a leading Islamic finance lawyer. He actively participates at key industry conferences and regularly comments on the subject of Islamic finance (including being interviewed by The Times and by local radio station, Dubai Eye).

Professional QualificationsSolicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales

EXPERIENCE

Paul continues to work on both conventional and Islamic financing transactions, giving clients a genuine breadth of knowledge and expertise. He also has significant debt restructuring experience.
His recent experience includes advising: 

  • Bank of Sharjah as senior lender on a number of financing matters, including project financing and the provision of real estate development facilities, acquisition facilities and general corporate purpose credit lines.
  • Kuwait Finance House (Bahrain) in relation to a significant club deal financing made available to Eskan Bank consisting of a term murabaha facility and a revolving murabaha facility.
  • Boubyan Bank in connection with various murabaha-based facilities for its customers, including an unsecured USD 160 million facility for a regional telecommunications operator.
  • Sharjah Environment Company LLC (Bee'ah) in connection with financing for the development of its new headquarters.
  • Emirates Islamic Bank in relation to senior secured murabaha facilities for Abdul Samad Al-Qurashi Group.
  • The Creditors’ Representative Committee (CRC) on the successful restructuring of the Lagoon City Sukuk, a first-of-its-kind restructuring involving a USD 200 million sukuk al musharaka (the deal involved a unique arrangement for the purposes of swapping debt for assets as well as the creation of a supplemental trust structure, and it also won "Kuwait Deal of the Year" at the IFN Awards 2019).
  • Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) in relation to several cross-border financing transactions involving UAE obligors.
  • The developer in connection with the financing of its USD 2 billion Doha Festival City Project, with a debt financing package in excess of USD 1 billion (provided on a co-financed basis with an Islamic facility and a commercial facility).

Education
  • The Queen's College, Oxford, BA (Hons) Jurisprudence

Publications

  • UAE clarifies factoring and assignments of receivables (October 2021)
  • The globalisation of Islamic finance: Perspectives from the Middle East, the UK and beyond (May 2021)
  • Braced for change - Renewed focus on reform of legal and regulatory framework for financial services in the United Arab Emirates (October 2020)
  • The demise of LIBOR: Is it an issue for Islamic banking? (April 2020)

Paul was one of the key authors behind the 'Sukuk Guidebook' published in November 2009 in conjunction with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).  He has also written a number of published articles which look at development and innovation within the Islamic finance industry, including: 'Islamic Finance in Bahrain' (MEED Guide to Doing Business, December 2013); 'Recent Developments in an Increasingly Global Islamic Finance Industry' (Capital Finance Initiative, December 2013); 'New methods underpin Islamic finance growth' (The National, 2013); 'Questions on the Kingdom - Islamic finance' (Islamic Business & Finance, 2013); 'Islamic banking thrives as playing field levelled' (The National, 2012); 'Positive Outlook for Islamic Project Financing' (The Big Project, 2012); 'Playing catch-up' (IFLR, 2007), 'Scholarly debate prompts reform' (IFLR, 2008); and a number of other contributions to industry publications.

 

Corporate Responsibility

Paul has participated in a number of pro bono projects, and was a key member of the New Perimeter team that worked on an economic development project for the Government of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. 

As part of our global Break into Law programme, Paul travelled to Lebanon (in 2014 and 2016) in order to deliver a series of legal drafting and negotiation courses to lawyers from the Beirut Bar Association (BBA).

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