IFR Awards 2016 Winners
In November 2015, at the start of IFR’s awards period, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hadn’t even established a debt management office, never mind stunned the financial markets with a record-breaking transaction.
In the 12 months since, however, the kingdom has made its mark in both the bond and loan markets as no debut issuer has before.
If its US$10bn syndicated loan in May was an early sign of appetite for the credit – initially Saudi was seeking to raise between US$6bn and US$8bn – the US$17.5bn bond deal in October left little doubt about the importance of the sovereign’s arrival on the international stage.