SABIC appoints HSBC Saudi Arabia as joint lead manager in its second Sukuk issuance

This Sukuk issuance follows a year after SABIC debut offering and has an identical structure but with further innovations: this SAR-denominated issue has a minimum subscription amount of just SAR 50,000 and is open for subscription by eligible GCC investors (in addition to Saudi investors).

These two features support both SABIC's and HSBC's endeavour to continually push the boundaries of innovation, and have been introduced to provide SABIC greater access to a broader base of investors and make this issue the first SAR-denominated Sukuk to be available for subscription outside the Kingdom.

HSBC, with its leading position in Sukuk in the Kingdom and the larger Islamic capital markets, was the ideal choice to lead the issuance of this Sukuk. Apart from sole lead managing SABIC's first sukuk, the HSBC group also lead managed SABIC Europe's debut Eurobond offering (SABIC group's European subsidiary) which was successfully placed in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

HSBC Saudi Arabia is the sole lead manager and sole bookrunner to the only other Sukuk that have been approved for public offering by the Capital Markets Authority of Saudi Arabia: the Sukuk for the Saudi Electricity Company to be issued shortly and the SAR 3 billion Sukuk issued by SABIC last year.

In just over one year since being licensed in the Kingdom, HSBC has demonstrated its clear market leadership, contributing to the development of the vibrant capital markets and this has been recognised through it being awarded "Best Investment Bank [Saudi Arabia]", "Best Sukuk House [Global]" in 2006 and "Best Debt House [Saudi Arabia]" and "Best M&A House [Saudi Arabia]" in 2007 by Euromoney.