Qatar's Ooredoo has signed three Islamic loan facilities with local banks totalling $498 million, the telecommunications operator said on Tuesday.

Ooredoo, which has operations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, has agreed one-year murabahas - a sharia-compliant cost-plus-profit arrangement - of $166 million each with Qatar Islamic Bank, Masraf Al-Rayyan and Barwa Bank.

These will be used for general corporate purposes, Ooredoo said in a statement.