Middle East Loans

Saudi Aramco has raised cash from an investor consortium by leasing a section of its pipelines, following a similar deal from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) last year. Other Middle East oil companies may follow suit amid concerns over the future of the oil prices.

Professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal has hired a seasoned advisor to bolster its Middle East advisory team, as it seeks to be an integral part of the region's diversification transformation.

Despite the disruption that the coronavirus pandemic and, more recently, volatility in global markets have brought to emerging market debt, issuers in the CEEMEA region are not backing away from their pivot towards ESG financing. Though concerns about greenwashing are holding the market back, new sustainability-linked and transition structures are tempting issuers.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has signed a $15bn multi-currency revolving credit facility with a syndicate of 17 international banks. Loan market conditions, participants said, are still attractive for borrowers, despite a drought of deals over the last year.

Syndicated lending volumes, particularly across emerging markets, have tumbled since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year. Though some had hopes that 2021 would yield more activity for lending desks, that optimism has been postponed to next year, as lenders say they simply cannot compete with other asset classes for business.

Saudi Arabia has secured an export financing agreement with Korea’s export credit agency and trade insurance corporation. The deal, which will bolster trade between the two, is the kingdom’s second ECA-backed deal.

Energean, the London-listed oil and gas company, has signed a $700m loan to develop a gas field off the shore of Israel, as the company enters the final stretch in having the field up and running.

Qatar National Bank, by assets the largest bank in the Middle East and North Africa, has raised a dual tranche $3.5bn syndicated loan, one of the largest emerging market loans signed this year.

Two Middle Eastern borrowers are tapping the Asian loan market as part of a new syndication strategy, taking advantage of the slow primary supply in Asia.

Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority (SEWA), a state-owned firm in the United Arab Emirates, is making a rare appearance in the Asian syndicated loan market with a $250m borrowing.

State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Company has raised a syndicated loan from local lenders worth $3.27bn equivalent. The deal is one of the few major financings to take place in the Middle East during the coronavirus pandemic, and comes at a time when Kuwait faces critical economic challenges.

A small group of Japanese banks have signed a syndicated facility that will support the funding of a solar power plant in Qatar, which is jointly owned by a consortium of Japanese, French and Qatari firms.