RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has mandated investment banks to arrange the kingdom’s first international sukuk denominated in dollars, the finance ministry said. The ministry appointed several local and international banks to coordinate meetings with fixed-income investors that would start on Sunday after which the sukuk would be issued “according to capital market conditions,” it said in a statement. It provided no details on the size of the issue.
Riyadh is expected to sell up to $10 billion of sukuk with an issue that could take place in the next few weeks, bankers told Reuters last week. The kingdom has started tapping international debt markets to diversify its sources of finance and plug a huge budget deficit caused by low oil prices. Citi, HSBC and JP Morgan are global coordinators on the planned issue. BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank are also involved with lead roles, and other banks might join the group of lead managers, banking sources have said.
