Saudi Arabia’s power generation industry, the largest in the Middle East, is to be the first target of the kingdom’s privatisation programme, the MEED Leaders in Energy Reform conference in Dubai was told today. It was told that the Saudi…
Category: Saudi Arabia
The only surprise is that Al-Assaf lasted so long
The termination last night of Ibrahim al-Assaf’s 20-year tenure as Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister is surprising for only one thing. It’s that he held the job for so long. Originally a university teacher, Al-Assaf — 67 — joined government…
Fitch rates Saudi bonds at AA
Fitch Ratings has assigned Saudi Arabia’s $5.5bn 2.375 per cent 2021 senior unsecured notes, the$5.5bn 3.25 per cent 2026 senior unsecured notes and $6.5bn 4.5 per cent 2046 notes a final rating of ‘AA-‘. The rating is in line with Saudi…
Iran and Saudi Arabia woo foreign investors
Iran and Saudi Arabia, competitors in Middle East politics and global oil markets, have this week stepped up campaigns to win tens of billions of dollars of foreign investment. Riyadh successfully raised $17.5bn in its first sovereign bond issue. The IMF said…
Boosted by bond success, Riyadh starts debt repayments
Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf The Saudi Arabian government is acting to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars owed to suppliers for months following the successful sale of $17.5bn worth of the kingdom’s first sovereign bonds to international…
Saudi bond issue launched
The Saudi Arabian government has circulated the prospectus for its planned bond issue and is due to start a roadshow promoting the offering on 12 October that will encompass London, New York, Boston and Los Angeles, It is reported to…
Saudi shale gas to start in 2017
Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said yesterday that the company plans to start producing gas from the Waad al-Shamal project in the north-west of the kingdom in late 2017 as part of a programme to double gas output…
Saudi officials in New York for bond talks
Senior representatives of Saudi Arabia’s finance industry are due to meet investors in New York today and tomorrow to brief them about plans for Saudi Arabia to issue the Middle East’s largest sovereign bond and sell shares in Saudi Aramco…
Saudi government borrowing slowed in August
Saudi Arabian government bonds held local banks rose by 1.4 per cent to SR 169,677m ($45.2bn) in August, figures contained in the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama) monthly statistical bulletin published on 29 September show. This is the smallest increase…
Sama relieves Saudi liquidity squeeze
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama) has announced it is placing about SR20bn ($5.3bn) of time deposits with the local banking system “on behalf of government entities” to relieve upward pressure on domestic interest rates which have almost doubled since…