Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s $500 billion megaproject NEOM is seeking to raise a 10 billion riyal ($2.7 billion) loan, according to media reports.
NEOM is a unit of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and reportedly having discussions with lenders outside the kingdom to help fund the early stages of the project, with the loan agreements possibly on the way to be finalized in the coming months.
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PIF has set itself a target to solicit 3 billion riyals more ($800 mn) from local banks for the development of NEOM’s luxury destination Shushah Island, the reports indicated.
NEOM will be 33 times bigger than New York City once the project is completed and will include The Line, a 170km straight-line city already under construction, Oxagon’, a utopian project claiming to be the ‘world’s largest floating structure’, ‘Trojena’, a futuristic ski resort, and finally a beach resort named Sindalah to which Riyadh Bank loaned some $800 mn loan to develop.
It is not the first billion-dollar funding the megacity is seeking to make as in June 2023 it secured a $5.6 bn deal with domestic developers to create a PPP that builds temporary housing and facilities.
Plans for NEOM were revealed in 2017 and the Saudi Crown Prince said in 2018 that the city would be completed in 2025.
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