Saudi Aramco to Issue Bond for SABIC Buy
Saudi Aramco may tap the bond market for about $10 billion to help fund the acquisition of compatriot petrochemicals producer SABIC, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told journalists in Dubai this week.
The state-owned oil major, which is diversifying into petrochemicals, is in talks to buy 70% of SABIC from the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), which holds about $133 billion of assets. The deal is expected to be worth about $70 billion
Al-Falih said the kingdom will decide “in the next few weeks” about the size of the proposed bond, but suggested that the offering, planned for the second quarter, would probably be “in about the 10 billion range.”
Aramco so far has largely avoided bond markets, relying almost exclusively on its own cash or bank loans, the news agency Bloomberg said. The newly announced bond will most likely be combined with banks loans, it added.
The monies raised would allow Aramco to pay the PIF for the stake, and in turn the Fund would obtain the money it had initially hoped to raise from the envisioned Aramco initial public offering. Saudi officials continue to insist, however, that the ipo will take place by 2021.
Aramco is new to the international bond market. The transaction, analysts point out, would force the world’s largest oil producer to disclose its accounts to investors for the first time since its nationalization four decades ago. It could also have to reveal details about oil reserves and operations.
The financial markets expect the announced bond issue to be only the start activity for Saudi companies. The Kingdom is thought likely to be one of the biggest issuers in the emerging market field this year.
In December 2018, news reports quoted finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan as saying that Saudi Arabia planned to sell about 120 billion riyals ($32 billion) of local and foreign-currency debt in 2019 to help finance its deficit. At the start of the year, it reportedly sold $7.5 billion of international debt.
