Moody's Investors Service, a leading provider of credit ratings and research, welcomes the Capital Market Authority (CMA) announcement that it has authorized Moody's to conduct credit rating activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Moody's looks forward to deepening its role in the Kingdom's debt capital markets, including through the establishment of an office in the Kingdom.
"Given the Kingdom's increasing prominence in the debt capital markets, we look forward to building on our two decades of experience in the region, and continuing to provide insightful, transparent and predictive credit ratings," says Monica Merli, Managing Director -- Regional Head Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
"Establishing an office in Riyadh demonstrates our continued commitment to the development of the debt capital market in the Kingdom and this aligns with the implementation of Saudi's Vision 2030," says Jehad El-Nakla, General Manager -- Moody's Investors Service Middle East.
"A Moody's rating can facilitate access to both domestic and international pools of debt capital and we expect debt issuance to continue to increase in Saudi Arabia as demonstrated by the Kingdom's debut international bond issuance in 2016," adds El-Nakla.
Saudi Arabia is also a key market for Islamic Finance, an area in which Moody's is recognised as a global thought leader through ratings, research and speaking engagements at leading conferences and events globally. The Kingdom completed the world's largest ever inaugural Sukuk issuance at $9 billion in April 2017, a transaction rated A1 by Moody's.
Moody's currently rates 140 issuers and 92 debt programs across the Middle East, including leading coverage in rating Islamic financial institutions and Sukuk. Moody's has won numerous awards for the quality of its credit analyses, including the Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) (2015, 2016 and nominated in 2017) -- Market Leadership Award; Islamic Finance Intelligence & Ratings (2016) and MENA IR Insurance Awards -- Best Rating Agency (2017).