Saudi Arabia

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has completed a Sr7.75bn ($2bn) package of loans by signing a $1.4bn three year revolving credit facility in London this week.

Options traders took Monday's oil volatility seriously, sending prices for near-dated contracts to some of the highest levels of recent months.

Any hopes among European credit traders of easing back into 2016 with a peaceful first week were shattered from the outset on Monday, as spreads gapped wider due to China’s stock market woes and oil price volatility arising from Saudi Arabia’s new stand-off with Iran.

The International Islamic Financial Market has teamed up with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association to publish launch an Islamic cross currency swap standard.

Debt bankers and analysts are expecting Saudi Arabia to tap the international markets for some $5bn in 2016, but BNP Paribas analysts warn that the sovereign entrance is going to hit the secondary levels of other Saudi borrowers.

Beset by dire predictions and gloomy warnings from all sides as to the future of emerging markets, CEEMEA borrowers decided to ignore the melodrama and produce the second biggest week for issuance of the entire year.

Société Générale has appointed Antoine Toussaint as chief country officer and CEO of its Saudi Arabia subsidiary.

A measure of calm is returning to energy commodity markets after a series of wild weeks, but implied volatility measures remain heightened across the sector.

Persian Gulf equity markets have so far failed to win a boost from last year’s inclusion of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar into the world’s main emerging market index, as well as the more recent opening up of the Saudi Exchange to foreign investors, market participants have said.

Saudi Electricity Co has received approval from its executive committee for a new sukuk programme and a revolving credit facility. If the firm deploys the former this year it should help breathe life into a sukuk market that has lost much of its steam after a strong start to the year.

We remarked last week that emerging markets could face a difficult time ahead. Well, we didn’t have to wait long before the early manoeuvers in a possible currency war had an impact on sovereign CDS spreads.

Saudi Electricity Company is asking to pay a margin of between 35bp and 50bp for a basket of up to $5bn of loans, according to a banker on the deal.