Saudi Aramco returns to debt market with three-tranche dollar bond sale

Saudi energy giant Aramco made its return to the debt market on Tuesday after a three-year hiatus, mandating banks for 10-, 30- and 40-year senior unsecured tranche debt sales, a document from one of the lenders showed.

The banks will arrange investor calls on Tuesday for the potential sale of benchmark-sized notes, according to the document, which did not disclose the size of the issuance.

GCC companies and governments have rushed to tap debt markets since the start of the year to take advantage of recent falls in global interest rates. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia issued $12bn of dollar-denominated bonds in January.

Aramco last tapped global debt markets in 2021, when it raised $6bn from a three-tranche sukuk or Islamic bond. In February, it flagged that it was likely to issue a bond this year.

Saudi Arabia also raised $11.2bn from a 0.64 per cent stake sale in Aramco last month, which could boost the country’s funding and its aim of shifting the economy away from oil under a plan called “Vision 2030”.

Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and SNB Capital have been appointed as joint active bookrunners for the three-part bond.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, BofA Securities, the Bank of China, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, GIB Capital, and Mizuho are among the banks acting as joint passive book-runners.

Read: Saudi Aramco awards $25bn in contracts for gas expansion