Saudi Arabia places 9 bln USD Islamic bonds

Baku. 13 April. REPORT.AZ/ Saudi Arabia raised $9 billion in its first dollar-denominated Islamic bond sale, $1 billion more than what the government was said to be planning to issue initially. 

Report informs citing the Bloomberg.

The government sold a $4.5 billion five-year sukuk tranche at 100 basis points over the mid-swap rate and an equally-sized 10-year tranche at a spread of 140 basis points to the benchmark, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Investors submitted more than $33 billion in bids, people with knowledge of the offering said earlier.

Investors placed orders in excess of $33 billion, the country’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia is tapping international and domestic markets to help finance a budget deficit that may reach $53 billion this year. The kingdom raised $17.5 billion in October in the biggest ever bond sale from an emerging-market nation, underlining the deepening strain on a nation that has eschewed international debt markets until now.Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest oil producer, sold $3 billion of Islamic bonds for the first time last week.