#SaudiArabia's Fannie Mae Plans $2.3 Billion in Sukuk Sales - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia's Fannie Mae Plans $2.3 Billion in Sukuk Sales - Bloomberg:

Saudi Arabia’s first mortgage-refinancing firm is set to debut in the bond market with a plan to raise as much as 8.5 billion riyals ($2.3 billion) this year as the kingdom seeks to expand home ownership.

The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Co., the state-run equivalent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the U.S., will tap domestic and international debt buyers with Islamic bonds, Chief Executive Officer Fabrice Susini said in an interview in Riyadh on Wednesday. The refinance firm aims to fund around 80 percent of its assets with debt or loans, he added.

Saudi Arabia has taken a number of measures to increase home construction and lending as it seeks to overcome one of the world’s lowest mortgage penetration rates. For years, the absence of financing firms like SRC limited the ability of banks to expand their mortgage books amid central-bank limits on loans to any one sector.