Strong Saudi sukuk marks turning point

Saudi Electricity Co's (SEC) oversubscribed 7 billion Saudi riyal ($1.87 billion) sukuk late last month could mark a turning point for Islamic debt markets, with more issues likely to follow later this year, a senior HSBC Holdings (HBC) official said on Sunday.

"There is a solid pipeline of potential issues, and we should see more in the second half of this year," Rajiv Shukla, head of debt capital markets for the Middle East and North Africa at HSBC, the lead arranger on the Islamic bond, told news agency Zawya Dow Jones in an interview on Sunday.

Saudi Electricity, the Middle East's largest utility, in June successfully closed its sukuk after the final order book exceeded 20 billion riyals, Riyadh-based Shukla said, adding that institutional investors in Saudi Arabia bought up the entire Islamic bond.