DEBT WATCH-

#1- The Arab Energy Fund (formerly Apicorp) issued a USD 650 mn 5-year senior unsecured bond under its Global Medium-Term Note Program, according to a press release. The bond was rated Aa2 (stable) by Moody’s and AA+ (stable) by Fitch and priced at 80 bps above the secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) Mid-Swap, with a yield of 4.9%. The issuance was increased from an initial USD 500 mn to USD 650 mn due to strong demand, after the order book was 1.4x oversubscribed. Investors placed orders over USD 935 mn, with 40% of the orderbook coming from outside the MENA region.

ADVISORS- BSF Capital, Doha Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq, Nomura, and Standard Chartered served as joint lead managers and bookrunners.

#2- The government-backed savings program Sah plans to adopt the ijara structure in its next issuance, according to a statement by the National Debt Management Center (NDMC). The ijara-based Sah sukuk, a shariah-compliant government-backed savings product for individuals, will receive subscriptions between today and Tuesday through SNB Capital, Aljazira Capital, Alinma Investment, Sab Invest, and Al Rajhi Capital.

Uhm, Enterprise … What’s ijara? Ijara is a shariah-compliant financing tool that allows individuals to save and/or acquire private property. For example, a person might lease a home from a bank for a fixed period, after which ownership is transferred to the client.

#3- Budget carrier Flynas lined up a SAR 495 mn (USD 132 mn) murabaha facility with Bank AlJazira to finance the purchase of three Airbus A320neo aircraft, it said in a post on LinkedIn.

REMEMBER- Flynas placed a USD 30 bn order with Airbus back in July for 30 wide-body A330neo and 130 narrow-body A320 aircraft, doubling its total Airbus orders to 280 — with deliveries set to roll out between 2027 to 2034.

FOOD-

The General Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (Modon) signed two new contracts to support food localization efforts, it said in a LinkedIn post. One of the agreements was signed with the Tadawul-listed milling company First Mills to invest SAR 80 mn in a 54k sqm plot. The other agreement was signed with ready meals manufacturer Al Zad Food to invest SAR 154 mn in a 19k sqm plot. Both plots are located in Jeddah’s 3rd Industrial City.

MANUFACTURING-

Sipchem gets the go-ahead to allocate feedstock for upcoming petrochemical complex: Sahara International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) received the Energy Ministry’s green light to allocate the feedstock for the establishment of a joint petrochemical complex with US-based LyondellBasell in Jubail Industrial City, according to a disclosure to Tadawul.

Sipchem will own 60% of the new facility, with LyondellBasell owning the remaining 40%. The facility has a projected production capacity of 1.5 mn tons of ethylene and 1.8 mn tons of derivative products per annum, including basic and specialty polymers.

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