Saudi Electricity Co.(5110.SA) will
receive a 15 billion riyal ($4 billion) loan from its main shareholder, the
Saudi government, over the next two years, state-run Saudi Press Agency
reported Monday.
The soft loan to the Arab world's biggest utility matures over 25 years, SPA
said, citing a government statement
Last week, SEC, whose major shareholder is the Saudi government, said its
first-quarter net loss widened to SAR782 million from a net loss of SAR771
million a year earlier mainly on higher operational costs to meet growing
demand.
Saudi Arabia
, which is struggling to supply uninterrupted electricity amid a
population boom and industrial expansion, expects SEC to invest $80 billion
over the next 10 years to add 20,000 megawatts of power generation capacity.
The utility, which has a monopoly over almost all the electric power generation
and all the transmission and distribution in the kingdom, is planning to sell
Islamic bonds, or sukuk, next month to raise SAR7 billion to finance its
expansion plans, SEC chief executive officer Ali Saleh Al Barrak told
Dubai-based Al Arabiya Television Tuesday.
The sukuk issue, which was approved by the Capital Market Authority, will be
Saudi Electricity's third after it raised SAR7 billion last year and in 2007.
The company has hired HSBC Holdings PLC and Samba Financial Group to manage the
sukuk sale, Al Barrak said, adding that SEC doesn't have enough cash to invest
in adding new capacity.