Civil aviation agency plans sukuk to fund expansion

Dubai: Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) started to meet investors on Tuesday ahead of issuing its debut Islamic bond, or sukuk, the state news agency SPA said.

The sukuk is fully guaranteed by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and will be the first in a series of Islamic bonds from the authority to help fund the 27.1 billion riyal (Dh26.5 billion) development of King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, the SPA added.

HSBC Saudi Arabia is the sole lead manager for the offering, having worked with GACA to structure the sukuk programme, banking sources in the kingdom said.

The report gave no value for the debut sukuk.

Last month, Prince Fahd Bin Abdullah, president of GACA, told Al Arabiya television that it would issue a sukuk within one or two months which would be paid back by revenues from the authority.

Saudi Arabia is currently implementing multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects and revamping many of its airports to cater to the growing number of passengers.