Saudi Real Estate Signs $179 Million Deal With Saudi Fransi

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Real Estate Refinance Co., a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, agreed to acquire a mortgage portfolio from Banque Saudi Fransi.

“The agreement is among multiple mortgage portfolio acquisitions worth 750 million riyals ($179 million) signed with local banks and specialist mortgage providers in Saudi Arabia," the company said Saturday in a statement.

SRC signed the agreements during the Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh at the end of last week.

“The agreement will further increase Banque Saudi Fransi’s ability to offer more accessibly home buying solutions,” SRC Chief Executive Officer Fabrice Susini said.

The deal aims to boost liquidity in the Saudi housing finance market and comes after SRC completed issuing 750 million riyals of sukuk.

The unit aims to refinance 20 percent of Saudi Arabia’s mortgage market, which is forecast to grow to 500 billion riyals by 2020 and 800 billion riyals in the coming decade.

To contact the reporter on this story: Layan Odeh in Dubai at lodeh3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Geimann at sgeimann@bloomberg.net

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