The National Debt Management Center of Saudi Arabia has increased its SR5.83 billion ($1.55 billion) in the latest sukuk issue, keeping its monthly offerings above the $1 billion mark. November declined to 22.7 percent in comparison to October, when the Kingdom increased SR7.54 billion.
Saudi Arabia raised SAR8.03 billion in September and SAR5.31 billion in August, further extending a pattern of robust performance in the domestic debt market.
Sukuk are Shariah-compliant financial products related to bonds that provide their investors with a share of the underlying assets of an issuer and follow the principles of Islamic finance, which prohibit interest-based transactions.
The November issuance, according to NDMC, was divided into five tranches. The initial tranche had an estimated value of SR700 million and is set to mature by 2027. The second is about SR1.37 billion, maturing in 2029; therefore, the third tranche is SR180 million, which will expire in 2032.
However, the fourth portion is valued at SR197 million, which will end in 2036, but the last tranche will be due in 2039, which was valued at SR3.38 billion.
Meanwhile, the debt market in Saudi Arabia has experienced a rapid growth over the recent years, with the fixed-income instruments attracting more attention as the global interest rates revamped investor demand.
According to a recent Fitch Ratings report, this follows the fact that the Gulf Cooperation Council sukuk outstanding rose 12.7 percent to $1.1 trillion by the end of the third quarter of 2025.
The US-based credit rating agency reported that the debt capital market activity in the GCC is predicted to be robust through to 2026, and this is backed by a healthy pipeline of anticipated issuances.
The report indicated that the sukuk issuances have risen 22 percent year-on-year during the first nine months of this year, contributing 40 percent of total GCC DCM outstanding. Thus, Sukuk has also surpassed bond growth, which has increased 7.2 percent year-on-year.
