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The Public Investment Fund (PIF) is planning to issue GBP-denominated bonds in an offering consisting of senior unsecured notes with five- and 15-year tenors, reports Bloomberg, citing a person it says is familiar with the matter. The sale would be only the second GBP-denominated debt issuance in Saudi history.
Where things stand: Investor calls were scheduled for yesterday, followed by the sale, Bloomberg’s source said, without providing further details on the timeline.
We knew some version of this was coming: The PIF has been reportedly considering more global bond sales and IPOs as it looks to ramp up the pace of investment as the Kingdom’s treasury prepares to run deficits through 2026 and pace out the implementation of some aspects of select Vision 2030 projects. The fund plans to ramp up annual deployment capacity to USD 70 bn a year starting 2026, up from a current annual spending clip of USD 40-50 bn. PIF has raised USD 7 bn since the start of the year from two debt sales.
Global bonds are the way to go: Officials at multiple levels of government and the PIF have repeatedly said in recent months that they don’t want to crowd private business out of the domestic debt market — and international appetite for the Saudi story is high.
The government also kicked off FCY bond sales last week, selling USD-denominated sukuk with three-, six-, and 10-year tranches as it looks to “plug” a USD 21 bn funding gap this year. The government sold USD 12 bn worth of USD-denominated sovereign bonds in January, marking Saudi’s largest issuance since 2017 when it sold USD 21.5 bn worth of bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
ADVISORS- The sovereign wealth fund hired Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC Holdings and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as joint global coordinators, while BofA Securities, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank AG were hired as joint active bookrunners.
