Saudi projects lure the big players

International banks have been encouraged to re-enter the Saudi project finance market with big-ticket deals backed by a relatively healthy risk environment and more solid financial guarantees than in the past. Nigel Dudley reports.

LATER THIS MONTH contractors and investment bankers will assemble in Jeddah for a detailed briefing on Saudi Arabia’s multi-million project to establish a rail link between Mecca and Medina.

This is only the latest of several big projects – estimated by bankers to be worth at least $200 billion over the next 20 years – that have been announced by the government, to be undertaken by combinations of the public and private sectors.

These include another rail project – the Landbridge between the west and east coasts of Saudi Arabia – as well as water, electricity and petrochemicals projects.

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