Saudi Arabia’s National Industrialisation Company (Tasnee) is close to completing a planned SR4bn ($1.08bn) corporate loan, according to banking sources in the kingdom.

The deal will involve a group of about five or six local banks and is understood to be priced at between 125-150 basis points above the Saudi interbank offered rate (Sibor) and has a tenor of eight years. Tasnee will use proceeds from the loan to finance investments in its subsidiaries.

Tasnee launched the deal on 27 May and had initially hoped to complete it before Ramadan started in mid-July, a timetable that bankers at the time thought was ambitious. “We are in the documentation phase now, so it will not be much longer before this is closed,” says one banker involved in the transaction.

Saudi Ethylene & Polyethylene Company (SEPC), in which Tasnee is a major shareholder, raised SR4.6bn in January. That nine-year deal was priced at about 150 basis points above Sibor, meaning the latest Tasnee corporate loan is priced slightly below that deal.

Tasnee, the second-largest industrial company in the kingdom, completed due diligence on a $14m investment in Australia’s Dyesol in mid-September. In February, Tasnee announced an initial $4m investment in Dyesol, which makes solar cells that can be used on buildings to generate electricity. The deal included the option to expand Tasnee’s investment to $20m and would be used to help accelerate commercialisation of Dyesol’s technology.