Sace, an Italian state-owned insurance company, has guaranteed a multi-currency loan of $3 billion provided by nine international banks to support projects in Neom, Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion giga-project.
The announcement coincided with an official visit by Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni to Saudi Arabia, where she and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed an agreement to raise Italian-Saudi relations to the level of strategic partnership.
Sace is run by Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. It announced its involvement in the loan on Sunday, along with four other agreements and memoranda of understanding. The company estimated the total value of all five deals to be $6.6 billion.
The deals should “facilitate Italian exports and the development of win-win trade and investment relations between our two countries,” said Sace CEO Alessandra Ricci in a press release.
“We believe that these partnerships will open up great potential for the growth of Italian exports in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. ”
The loan will be used to fund exports from Italian companies to support Neom in various sectors, including infrastructure, construction and logistics.
The banks providing the money are HSBC, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Bank of China, Crédit Agricole CIB, Agricultural Bank of China, Citibank NA, China Construction Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank and Bank of America.
The deals also included a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Saudi Electricity Company “to facilitate business and investment opportunities, with a focus on sustainable and renewable energy projects”.
According to the deal, Sace will “explore opportunities to provide credit guarantees” for new sustainable projects.
Sace signed two deals with Acwa Power: a $100 million credit agreement to fund Acwa’s green projects in Central Asia, with provisions made for Saudi support for Italian companies, and an agreement to explore $500 million worth of joint projects that would support Italian exporters.
Separately, Acwa Power has agreed a deal with Italian natural gas operator Snam to explore investments that will help to transport Saudi green hydrogen to Europe.
The fifth Sace deal was an unspecified agreement with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa to support Italy’s Mattei Plan, a strategy launched by Meloni to strengthen Italy’s relationship with Africa through energy cooperation.
On Sunday, Meloni said the value of all deals signed during her visit was $10 billion. Speaking in AlUla, she announced what she said she hoped to be “the beginning of a new era” in Saudi-Italian cooperation.
She said she sought closer cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, energy, technology, defence and tourism “where Saudi Arabia has, in my opinion, huge potential”.
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