Saudi PIF taps Italy's SACE for $3B in export-backed credit
What's the deal? Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIFDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →) has raised the equivalent of $3 billion in dual-tranche credit facilities guaranteed by SACEDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Italy's export credit agency. The financing follows a March 2025 memorandum that contemplated up to that amount in support for projects involving Italian companies.
Why now? PIF is leaning harder on external financing: its loans and borrowings rose about 27% in 2025, while government capital contributions fell sharply. The SACEDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → deal also follows a $7 billion PIF bond sale in May 2026, its largest to date.
What's the endgame? The fund wants to broaden its roster of international lenders and export credit agencies to bankroll Vision 2030 projects. SACE-backed structures let PIF finance work while drawing Italian suppliers and lenders into the Kingdom.
PIF said its existing SACE-backed financing had already exceeded $3 billion before this deal. SACE chief executive officer Alessandra Ricci said the earlier agreement offered opportunities for Italian small and medium-sized enterprises to act as suppliers on PIF-funded projects.
The signal: The facility is less a cash windfall than proof of how export-credit guarantees can help a sovereign fund raise money cheaply while pulling in foreign industry. For PIF, which is under pressure to diversify funding amid softer oil revenues, it points to a durable shift toward borrowing over state top-ups.
Read more: in.marketscreener.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
