Saudi Electricity eyes sukuk

FUND RAISING: Saudi Electricity said on Sunday it may issue new Islamic bonds as it seeks funds to meet burgeoning power demand. (Getty Images)

Utilities giant Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) is looking to sell sukuk in order to meet soaring demand for power in the kingdom and cope with rocketing contracting costs.

The firm, which raised 5 billion riyals from the sale of its first Islamic bond about a year ago, will need to spend 26 billion riyals ($6.93 billion) on four planned power plants, it said on Sunday in a statement on the Saudi bourse website.

"These projects will be financed by company cash flows... in addition to other available financing means such as issuing sukuk and loans and taking advantage of facilities provided by international export banks," it said.

It did not elaborate on the potential size of a sukuk issue. The four projects will add about 4 gigawatts to the state-controlled firm's power capacity, it added.

"The global rise in equipment prices and the rise in local contracting costs has greatly affected the costs of Saudi Electricity's projects," it said.

Investors offered 7 billion riyals for Saudi Electricity's maiden sukuk issue in spite of the firm's fragile finances. The company was initially seeking to raise only 2.5 billion riyals in July last year.

The bonds were priced at 45 basis points over the Saudi Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR), Hissam Kamal Hassan, director of Islamic finance in Saudi Arabia for lead arranger HSBC Holdings Plc, told newswire Reuters on July 9.

Saudi Electricity plans to invest around 7 billion riyals a year of its own cash to increase generating capacity by 60 percent by 2015 to meet demand for power, Chief Executive Ali Saleh Al-Barrak told Reuters last year.

Islamic bonds do not pay interest, which is banned as usury under Islamic law. Instead, sukuk issues offer investors a share of profits from approved investments. The sukuk is structured to resemble a floating rate note.

Only institutional and individual investors resident in Saudi Arabia and with bank accounts in the kingdom were allowed to buy the five-year bonds.

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