RIYADH: ROSHN Real Estate Co., a major player in Saudi Arabia’s property development sector, has secured SR10 billion ($2.67 billion) in funds as it prepares to embark on a series of projects across the Kingdom.
The Public Investment Fund-owned company received this financial backing after concluding a revolving credit agreement worth SR6 billion with three local banks earlier this year.
“We’ve got about SR10 billion lined up in balance sheet credit although we haven’t drawn the first six yet because we actually have enough money within our business at the moment from our receipts,” David Grover, CEO of ROSHN Group, said in a recent interview, Bloomberg reported.
“But we will be drawing it down in the next three to nine months because we have some other investments that we need to make in terms of putting cash in to start projects,” said Grover.
ROSHN plans to build over 400,000 homes, 1,000 kindergartens and schools and more than 700 mosques.
The developer’s financial planning is tuned to “make sure that we don’t have to slow down our journey at all if for any reason the funder wants to stop putting any cash into our business for two years,” Grover told Bloomberg.
Last month, ROSHN launched MARAFY in northern Jeddah, a mixed-use complex with more than 300 sq. km of waterfront promenade and a total area of more than 2 million sq. meters, featuring the Kingdom’s first canal project connected to the Red Sea.
With a capacity for over 130,000 people, the project will include more than 52,000 residential units.
It also features a constructed canal 100 meters wide and 11 km long connected to Obhur Creek.
“MARAFY will be a game changer in the real estate development sector, raising the bar of development in the region, boosting the quality of life, and creating a huge impact in Jeddah,” said Grover in a press statement.
The statement noted that the artificial canal in MARAFY will provide a waterfront comparable in size to those of Chicago, Stockholm, Hamburg and central London.
The project will also emerge as one of the contributors to achieving Vision 2030 goals of creating a vibrant community and a thriving economy.
