Saudi Aramco’s latest foray into the capital markets, a dual-tranche $3 billion sukuk, rounds off a year in which the energy giant engaged conventional and Islamic investors alike. Coming on the heels of its conventional bond sale in July 2024, the transaction addressed demand for long-dated paper while exploiting the scarcity value of AAOIFI-compliant instruments.
The company split the deal evenly between five- and ten-year certificates, each sized at $1.5 billion and priced at T+85 and T+100 basis points, respectively.
The sukuk cleared 15 basis points inside Aramco’s own conventional curve – an achievement unmatched among Saudi peers, whose sukuk and bond curves remain flat – highlighting investors’ willingness to pay a premium for the issuer’s credit.
By refreshing its sukuk curve, Aramco injected fresh liquidity, secured aggressive price compression, and assembled a high-quality order book that reached well beyond the traditional MENA buyer base.
HSBC acted as active joint bookrunner, joint sukuk structuring agent, documentation and logistics coordinator and billing & delivery agent. Al Rajhi Capital acted as sole active bookrunner in the Kingdom.
