Saudi Arabia Raises 3.25 Billion Dollars in First International Dollar Sukuk Sale of 2026
Saudi Arabia’s National Debt Management Center sold 3.25 billion dollars of dollar-denominated trust certificates, or sukuk, on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, its first international sukuk sale of the year, drawing strong investor demand even as the region continues to navigate the economic fallout of the US-Iran war, according to the National Debt Management Center and Bloomberg.
Strong Demand for a Dual-Tranche Deal
The National Debt Management Center said in a statement published on its website that the issuance was arranged through KSA Ijara Sukuk Limited under the Kingdom’s Global Trust Certificate Issuance Program, describing it as the Kingdom’s second international issuance structured on an Ijarah basis, a count that refers to the Ijarah structure specifically rather than to this calendar year. The order book reached approximately 16.5 billion dollars, resulting in the offering being oversubscribed by 5 times its final size, the center said.
Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly, reported that orders peaked at more than 15 billion dollars during the marketing process. On our reading, the gap between that mid-process order figure and the National Debt Management Center’s confirmed final book suggests demand kept building as the sale progressed toward pricing, a pattern consistent with the tightening of terms described below.
Tranche Sizes and Pricing
According to the National Debt Management Center, the total issuance was split into two tranches. The first tranche was sized at 1.25 billion dollars in a 5-year sukuk maturing in 2031. The second tranche totaled 2 billion dollars in a 10-year sukuk maturing in 2036.
On pricing, the same report said the 10-year tranche was sold at a spread of 80 basis points above US Treasuries, citing the same person familiar with the matter, who said this was about 30 basis points tighter than where discussions had initially started. Full details of the pricing spread on the 5-year tranche were not available in the public reporting reviewed for this article.
A Separate Deal From August’s Riyal Sukuk
This dollar-denominated sale is distinct from the Kingdom’s domestic, riyal-denominated sukuk program, under which The Edge previously reported Saudi Arabia raised 9.5 billion riyals in August 2026. That program funds the government through local capital markets in the national currency, while Tuesday’s transaction taps international dollar investors through a separate global issuance vehicle. It is the Kingdom’s second international debt capital markets transaction of 2026, after an 11.5 billion dollar conventional bond sale across 3-year, 5-year, 10-year and 30-year tranches that the National Debt Management Center completed on January 6.
Why it matters: The sale is one of several signals that international investors remain willing to fund Saudi Arabia’s borrowing needs despite the economic strains attributed, per the same report, to the fallout of the US Iran war, including disruption linked to the Strait of Hormuz that has weighed on regional shipping and market sentiment this year. The National Debt Management Center said the level of demand reflects investor confidence in the strength of the Kingdom’s economy and its future investment outlook. Saudi Arabia’s total government debt stood at 1,685 billion riyals as of the second quarter of 2026, equivalent to a debt-to-GDP ratio of 33.9 percent, according to the center’s published indicators.
Outlook: With this transaction closed, attention turns to how the Kingdom paces further borrowing for the remainder of 2026 and into prefunding for 2027. Continued strong order books, if they persist, would support the National Debt Management Center’s stated strategy of diversifying its international investor base. Whether regional tensions tied to the Strait of Hormuz ease or persist will remain a factor market participants watch when pricing future Gulf sovereign issuance.
Sources: National Debt Management Center; Bloomberg.
