Saudi Oger closing in on $2bn loan

31 May 2011

Construction firm aims to raise cash from local and international banks

Construction company Saudi Oger is close to finalising a banking group for a $2bn loan deal that will be used to fund the development of police training facilities in the kingdom.

The deal, which is being arranged by Germany’s Deutsche Bank, is split between a $1bn dollar denominated loan and a $1bn advanced payment facility denominated in Saudi riyals and financed by the local banks.

Alinma is understood to have taken on a role coordinating the local banking group, while Deutsche Bank focuses on talks with other international banks about the deal. Alinma is understood to be in talks to take a significant part of the riyal loan, while also looking for banks to finance the rest of the $1bn local tranche.

The local bank tranche is expected to be priced significantly lower than the international bank loan because of the high level of liquidity in the Saudi banking system.

Saudi Oger is particularly keen to attract international banks into the deal to diversify its sources of funding because many of the local lenders have reached their single borrower limit for the company.

The Saudi construction company started talks with banks in March and is hoping to complete the deal before Ramadan, which is expected to start on 1 August.

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