Saudi Arabia raises record $17.5bn in first bond issue

Reducing dependency on oil

Saudi Arabia has raised $17.5bn in its first sovereign bond issue, a record-breaking figure for emerging markets.

According to Bloomberg, the bond will comprise three maturities of five, ten and 30 years with yields of around 2.63%, 3.44% and 4.64% respectively. The figure eclipses the $16.5bn raised by Argentina earlier this year and $9bn raised by Qatar and it is believed orders surpassed $67bn. Emerging market debt has been popular with investors over the past few months with EMD funds seeing strong inflows as investors seek alternatives to low yields in developed markets. Speaking to Bloomberg, Richard Segal, senior investment analyst at Manulife Asset Management, said: "The programme whic...