Saudi Electricity Co plans to issue Islamic bonds denominated in both riyals and dollars in coming months and has selected banks to arrange the offers, banking sources aware of the matter said on Thursday.
The monopoly utility has large fund-raising needs as it looks to expand generation capacity to keep up with the kingdom’s rapidly growing power demand, which is climbing by around 9 percent per year.
SEC has chosen the investment banking arm of Banque Saudi Fransi and HSBC’s Saudi Arabian unit to arrange the riyal-denominated sukuk, three banking sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the information isn’t public.
This transaction is expected to launch as early as Thursday, two of the sources said.
HSBC will also be involved as an arranger of the dollar-denominated sukuk, along with Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Chase, said one of the sources. This sale is expected in early 2014, the three sources said.
HSBC and Deutsche Bank arranged SEC’s two previous international sukuk issues, including a $2 billion two-tranche deal in March which garnered orders from investors worth more than $17 billion.
SEC declined to comment.
*This article was published on 16 November 2013 by Arab Business. Read the original article here.