Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has raised $2 billion from a sukuk offering, the fund's second debt issuance this year.
The offering attracted orders worth $16 billion, meaning it was covered about eight times, which enabled the fund to reduce the yield to 85 basis points over US Treasuries for the same term from the indicative price of 115 basis points.
The yield for Islamic debt instruments with a term of up to 7 years was 5.17%, according to offering data reported by Bloomberg.
The issuance comes about a month after the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund sold $5 billion in bonds. The fund’s last sukuk issue was in October, followed by a green bond offering in February 2023.
The Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has appointed Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Standard Chartered as global coordinators for the offering, and has tasked Al Rajhi Capital, Citigroup, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, JP Morgan and KFH Capital Investments to manage the subscription book, while Bank of America Securities, Bank of China, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, ICBC International Securities (Ltd), Mashreq Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank, Al Ahli Capital and Societe Generale have been appointed as passive bookrunners.
The most active sovereign wealth funds in the world
The Public Investment Fund is a key part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil. The fund plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years in everything from electric cars to semiconductors, resorts and sports.
The fund, chaired by the crown prince, was the world’s most active sovereign wealth fund in 2023, according to research consultancy Global SWF, pumping about $32 billion into a number of deals.
