Dubai: The Saudi Arabian government has told local banks that it will sell them 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion; Dh19.56 million) of three-, five- and seven-year bonds, with floating as well as fixed rates, the Maaal financial website quoted sources as saying on Sunday. Allocations of the bonds will be made on Monday, Maaal said.
The government has been selling 20 billion riyals of bonds every month since last August to cover a budget deficit created by low oil prices.
Among the new fixed-rate bonds, the three-year tranche will be priced at 55-60 basis points (BPS) over US Treasuries, the five-year tranche at 61-66 bps over and the seven-year tranche at 72-77 bps over, Maaal said.
The floating rate bonds would be priced at the three-month Saudi interbank offered rate minus 25-30 bps for the three-year tranche, minus 10-15 bps for the five-year tranche, and flat to 5 bps over for the seven-year tranche.
Last month, the government sold five-, seven- and 10-year bonds.
