SFC continued its achievements and won Deal of the Year award for 2014 from the Banker magazine of the Financial Times, after achieving sukuk issuance for Almarai Company, with a total value of SR1.7 billion.

SFC's CEO Yasser bin Othman Al-Rumayyan expressed his pride and gratitude for the continued and distinguished progress, which had manifested in achieving a number of awards by international entities.

He also noted that SFC is considered one of major investment banking companies, and thanked the efficiency and expertise of the work team.

Commenting on the achievement, he said: “We are delighted to achieve the Deal of the Year Award 2014 for Bonds: Corporate Almarai — SR1.7 billion perpetual senior sukuk. The real achievement in this sukuk was structuring it in a manner that fulfilled Almarai’s objective of capital treatment while managing the investor’s requirements in relation to risk and maturity at a competitive pricing level. This was also the first hybrid sukuk in Saudi Arabia.”

He added: “I believe SFC was able to play a conclusive role in this transaction as our investment banking team and distribution team completed a string of one of its kind transactions, starting with the first project finance sukuk in the Kingdom for SATORP to the first EMTN program for a Saudi financial institution, and also acting as the sole lead manager for the first collateralized bank issuance in the Kingdom for Saudi Binladen Group. In 2013 alone, we closed a total of four sukuk transactions to raise a total of SR7.7 billion from debt capital markets. We are keen to continue this success in the future.”