By Yousef Saba
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi National Bank, the kingdom’s largest lender that is 50.4% indirectly owned by the government, has hired banks to arrange the sale of U.S. dollar-denominated five-year inaugural sustainable sukuk, or Islamic bonds, a bank document showed on Monday.
The proceeds will be eligible to fund renewable energy-generating facilities, including loans to develop such projects as well as loans related to tree-planting, an investor presentation reviewed by Reuters showed.
HSBC, the sole ESG (environmental, social and governance) structuring agent, along with Citi, Emirates NBD Capital, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Securities and SNB Capital began investor calls on Monday, the document from one of the banks on the deal showed.
An offering of U.S. dollar-denominated senior unsecured sustainable sukuk will follow, subject to market conditions, the document said.
The debt sale is expected to be of benchmark size, which generally means at least $500 million, the investor presentation showed.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
