Saudi Arabia said to hire banks for dollar sukuk issue

Saudi Arabia has picked Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and HSBC Holdings to serve as global coordinators on its international sukuk issue, Bloomberg has reported, citing unnamed sources.

The kingdom also hired Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas among others as lead managers for the sale.

Like its fellow oil exporters in the GCC, Saudi Arabia has been hit hard by the plunge in oil prices from mid-2014 onwards.

The government expects to run a deficit of SAR 198 billion in 2017, and hopes to balance finances by 2020.

The kingdom raised $17.5 billion in a record sovereign bond issuance last October, as it sought to ease its budget deficit caused by falling oil prices.

This year, the world’s top oil exporter plans to raise $10-15 billion from international bond markets, while selling about SAR 70 billion locally, Mohammad Al Tuwaijri, secretary-general of the Finance Committee at the Royal Court, told Al-Arabiya TV in December.