Hogan Lovells and Reed Smith have acted on Barwa Bank's $125m (£78m) Islamic facility made available to UAE-based shipping company Topaz Energy and Marine. 

The facility will finance 12 of Topaz's ships operating in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. It has two separate structures: a $110m (£68.2m) scheme for 10 existing vessels; and a $15m (£9.3m) deal for the purchase of two vessels under construction. 

Hogan Lovells advised Barwa, fielding a Dubai-based team led by banking and finance partner Rustum Shah with support from asset finance partner Simon Gwynne in London. 

A Reed Smith team led by Adam Morgan advised Topaz.

Hogan Lovells has previously acted for another part of the Barwa group, Barwa Real Estate.

Shah said: "This is the first time we have advised Barwa Bank. It is the newest of the Qatari/Islamic banks and is growing very fast, pushing many others out of the market.

"It is unique in the breadth of work it does – only a select number of banks do shipping financing because it's so complex. It is encouraging to see them doing so well and we are speaking to them about other transactions."