Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC) will tap international debt markets for a debut $500 million dollar-denominated bond early next year, to fund the growth of its loan book, its chief executive said.
The company, founded three years ago to support a domestic market for home loans, will also tap the local sukuk market with a one-year, 10 billion riyals ($2.7 billion) guaranteed bond issue programme before its international foray, Fabrice Susini told The National.
“We will target around $500m for the first international issuance, probably not below. It could be a bit more. We'll see. It will depend … on the situation in the market at that time,” Mr Susini said.
SRC is also planning to enter into the structured finance market next year, either through a securitisation of some of its loan book or issuance of a covered bond as the company looks to diversify its funding sources.
SRC was co-founded by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund and the Ministry of Housing in October 2017 to boost home ownership in the biggest Arab economy.
It does not lend directly to end-users, but provides liquidity to the home loans market by buying mortgages from banks and other lenders, freeing them up to extend more loans to the sector.
Mortgage take-up rates were low by international standards when the company was formed, with only about 150,000-170,000 issued for a country with more than 30 million inhabitants, Mr Susini said.
PIF provided 5bn riyals in initial funding, but the company has already tapped local sukuk markets on a couple of occasions following the issue of its 750 million riyals ($220m) debut Islamic bond in March last year.
SRC “probably underestimated” the amount of time it would take for its product to become established among banks and mortgage lenders, but since the second half of last year the market has witnessed “exponential growth”, Mr Susini said.
He cited mortgage lending figures by the Saudi Central Bank, which showed the kingdom’s residential loans market increased in value by 97bn riyals to about 312bn riyals by the end of the third quarter of 2020, from about 215bn riyals at the end December 2019.
“So already in nine months … you increase by 40 per cent the inventory,” he said.
For the past 12 months, new mortgage issues in the kingdom have fluctuated between 17,000-25,000 loans per month. The central bank’s most recent figure for September was 27,889 loans, which was a 66 per cent year-on-year increase.
SRC's balance sheet reflects the surge by the end of October, multiplying "more than three times our total balance sheet deployment," Mr Susini said.
About 2.1-2.2bn riyals was deployed at the end of 2019, and by the end of October this reached 6.5bn riyals.
Although much of its growth has been organic, SRC spent 3bn riyals in July buying a portfolio of mortgages from the kingdom’s Public Pensions Agency.
The deal showed that there are “more players” in the kingdom that have originated mortgages outside of the 11 main banks, Mr Susini said.
“We are agnostic as to who is originating these mortgages, as long as it complies with the regulations ... our objective is to facilitate the process for originators," he said.
“But the big driver ... the ultimate bearing we have in mind is the ultimate borrower, the Saudi citizen – making sure that they can get access to financing at the most competitive rate possible for a product that is best suited for their situation.”
War and the virus
Simon Rushton: War vet raises £12m for health workers
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• Could the UAE drive India's economy?
• News has a bright future and the UAE is at the heart of it
• Architecture is over - here's cybertecture
• The National announces Future of News journalism competition
• Round up: Experts share their visions of the world to come
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France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
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Winners: Dubai Hurricanes
Runners up: Bahrain
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Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
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Neighbourhood Watch
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
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- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
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Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman
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Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar
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Sunday Feb 23, 9.30am, v Iran
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Ahmed Raza, Rohan Mustafa, Alishan Sharafu, Ansh Tandon, Vriitya Aravind, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Basil Hameed, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Ayaz, Zahoor Khan, Chirag Suri, Sultan Ahmed
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Welterweight Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Tohir Zhuraev (TJK)
Catchweight 75kg Leandro Martins (BRA) v Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Flyweight Corinne Laframboise (CAN) v Manon Fiorot (FRA)
Featherweight Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Bogdan Kirilenko (UZB)
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Catchweight 69kg Jung Han-gook (KOR) v Elias Boudegzdame (ALG)
Catchweight 71kg Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) v Jerry Kvarnstrom (FIN)
Featherweight title Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) v Alexandru Chitoran (ROU)
Lightweight title Bruno Machado (BRA) v Mike Santiago (USA)
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
- Tourism industry knowledge.
- Professional ethics.
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
