Saudi sovereign wealth fund knocks on debt market doors for second time this year with sukuk offering

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DUBAI: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund plans to tap the debt market for the second time this year with a seven-year dollar-denominated sukuk, a document showed on Monday, Reuters reported.

According to the document, the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, which manages more than $700 billion in assets, tasked Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Standard Chartered to arrange meetings with investors.

PIF, along with the government of Saudi Arabia, last month joined a wave of emerging market issuers seeking to take advantage of rising demand for debt before central banks are expected to lower interest rates later this year.

It raised $5 billion through the sale of a triple-tranche conventional bond in January and $3.5 billion from a sukuk deal in October. A sukuk is a financial offering that complies with Islamic religious rules regarding interest.

PIF accounted for about a quarter of the $124 billion spent by sovereign wealth funds worldwide last year, according to a report in January from industry specialist Global SWF.

The fund plans to ramp up its deployment of capital to $70 billion a year after 2025, from $40 billion to $50 billion currently, PIF Gov. Yasir Al-Rumayyan said last week in Miami.