ESG sukuk issuance jumps 21% to $6.8bn in H1: Moody's
ESG sukuk issuance jumps 21% to $6.8bn in H1: Moody's/node/2572613/business-economy
ESG sukuk issuance jumps 21% to $6.8bn in H1: Moody's
Green sukuk, which are Shariah-compliant investments in renewable energy and environmental assets, have gained traction as markets shift toward sustainable financing. Shutterstock
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Updated 24 September 2024
Nirmal Narayanan
ESG sukuk issuance jumps 21% to $6.8bn in H1: Moody's
Growth attributed to ongoing decarbonization efforts in Islamic countries and guidance from the International Capital Market Association
GCC economies accounted for 82% of sustainable sukuk issuance in the first half of 2024
Updated 24 September 2024
Nirmal Narayanan
RIYADH: Global issuance of environmental, social, and governance sukuk surged 21 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, reaching $6.8 billion, according to an analysis by Moody’s.
The growth is attributed to ongoing decarbonization efforts in Islamic countries and guidance from the International Capital Market Association.
Green sukuk, which are Shariah-compliant investments in renewable energy and environmental assets, have gained traction as markets shift toward sustainable financing.
“Sustainable sukuk issuance is rising from a low base as such we expect issuance in 2024 to top the $10.6 billion that it logged in 2023 — itself a big jump from $6.3 billion in 2022 — driven by the growing push toward decarbonization, expanding policy efforts and robust investor demand,” said Abdulla Al-Hammadi, assistant vice president and analyst at Moody’s Ratings.
Gulf Cooperation Council economies accounted for 82 percent of sustainable sukuk issuance in the first half of 2024, with ֱ and the UAE contributing 42 percent and 33 percent of the total, respectively.
The report indicates that the growth of these sustainable Islamic bonds will accelerate amid global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
“As most countries with active sukuk markets, such as in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, have rolled out energy transition plans, with renewable energy targets, financing through sustainable sukuk will be a key lever for them to meet their decarbonization goals,” added Moody’s.
While conventional sustainable bond issuance declined by 8 percent in the same period, sustainable sukuk are appealing to Islamic and conventional investors looking to implement sustainable investment strategies.
“A key appeal is that the instrument (green sukuk) provides transparency in its use of proceeds. About 74 percent of sustainable sukuk have been issued in non-local currencies, indicating strong international demand. As such, we expect that growth in sustainable sukuk will accelerate, garnering a larger share of the sukuk market,” said Moody’s.
In July, Fitch Ratings reported that ESG sukuk issuance in key Islamic finance markets — such as the GCC, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkiye, and Pakistan — increased by 13 percent year on year, reaching $6.3 billion in the first half of 2024.
Looking ahead, Moody’s expects the governments of ֱ and Oman to issue their first sustainable sukuk, following the introduction of sustainable finance frameworks.
Additionally, more private companies are anticipated to enter the market for green Islamic bonds in the coming months, with established sukuk issuers likely considering sustainable instruments to attract a broader investor base.
How ֱ’s Humain is pushing Arabic AI to the global frontier
Homegrown AI system Humain is building a full-stack ecosystem designed to drive innovation, infrastructure, and technology leadership in the region
Its Arabic-first AI models are being developed to integrate language, culture, and specialized knowledge for consumer and enterprise applications
Updated 50 min 19 sec ago
Waad Hussain
ALKHOBAR: ֱ has set its sights on becoming a global artificial intelligence powerhouse, and one company is at the center of that mission.
Humain, launched in May 2025 with backing from the Public Investment Fund, is building what many describe as the Arab world’s most ambitious AI ecosystem.
Unlike firms that focus narrowly on single models, Humain delivers full-stack capabilities, from sovereign data centers to advanced large language models, all designed in and for the Kingdom.
At the heart of this vision is Humain Chat, a consumer app powered by the ALLaM 34B foundation model.
The HUMAIN Chat app interface, designed for over 400 million Arabic speakers. (Supplied)
Built as an Arabic-first system, it represents a decisive shift: Instead of adapting foreign technologies, ֱ is now creating innovation rooted in its own language and culture.
Developing ALLaM 34B was Humain’s first major challenge and its greatest statement of intent.
The model was trained on more than 500 billion Arabic tokens, making it the largest Arabic language dataset ever used. Independent evaluations have already ranked it as the world’s most advanced Arabic-first AI system.
Yaser Al-Onaizan, deputy CEO and president of data and AI models at Humain, explained why this matters.
“ALLaM is set apart by its deep cultural integration and comprehensive understanding of Arabic nuances, from regional dialects to religious and historical contexts,” he said.
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The design choice was not cosmetic. By building the model in Arabic from the ground up, Humain gave it the ability to understand and reflect everyday speech while also handling specialized contexts like finance, government services, and education.
This dual focus allows ALLaM to power Humain Chat for millions of consumers while being robust enough for enterprise deployments.
Humain Chat is more than just a demo of Saudi AI capability. Available for free in the Kingdom on iOS, Android, and web, it is designed to serve more than 400 million Arabic speakers globally.
Smarter, context-aware answers from HUMAIN Chat. (Supplied)
Users can switch between Arabic and English, dictate in multiple dialects, and even search the web in real time without leaving the app.
“Our model’s real-world adaptability is unmatched,” said Al-Onaizan. “While powering Humain Chat for consumers, it is also enterprise-ready, capable of seamless integration into government services, financial systems, and customer platforms.”
Where Humain differs from most regional players is its scale. The company describes itself as a full-stack AI provider, delivering not just large language models but also infrastructure, cloud platforms, and data governance systems.
This makes it one of the few firms globally attempting to control the entire AI value chain.
App icon for HUMAIN Chat, available on iOS and Android.
Its portfolio includes hyperscale data centers, cloud-native services, and a sovereign data platform capable of managing the full lifecycle from ingestion to visualization.
On top of this sit its models, from ALLaM to advanced voice-enabled systems, and finally consumer and enterprise applications such as Humain Chat.
The company’s ambitions are reinforced by major partnerships.
AWS is investing $5 billion in a new AI Zone in the Kingdom. NVIDIA is working with Humain to build AI factories with hundreds of thousands of graphics processing units.
Instant, reliable information with HUMAIN Chat. (Supplied)
Qualcomm, AMD, Cisco, and Groq are also aligned with the effort, ensuring Humain has both the software and hardware ecosystem to scale.
One of the biggest challenges in AI is training data, and for Arabic it has always been a limiting factor. High-quality corpora are scarce, fragmented, and inconsistent. Humain chose to tackle this head-on by designing its own data curation and governance pipeline.
“Building advanced Arabic language models presents unique data challenges that we’ve systematically addressed at Humain,” said Al-Onaizan.
“The scarcity of high-quality Arabic training data has historically been a significant barrier. However, we turned this challenge into an opportunity through our innovative approach to data curation and governance, which was a built-from-scratch solution.”
Dr. Yaser Al-Onaizan, deputy CEO and president of data and AI models at HUMAIN, who spearheaded the development of ALLAM 34B. (Supplied)
To achieve this, Humain mobilized a network of more than 600 domain experts and 250 evaluators who validated and refined the training sets. The result is a model tuned for accuracy, relevance, and compliance with ֱ’s Personal Data Protection Law.
The Humain story is also the Saudi story.
Vision 2030 has made AI a national priority, and Humain reflects that ambition. By combining sovereign control with global partnerships, the Kingdom is positioning itself not just as a user of technology but as a leader shaping its direction.
“We are confident that ֱ is taking all the necessary steps to become a global AI powerhouse,” said Al-Onaizan. “Our vision aligns strategically with the Kingdom’s ambitious national strategy, where we are not just participants, but we are actively shaping the future of AI.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Humain is building the Arab world’s most ambitious full-stack AI ecosystem and infrastructure.
Humain Chat is powered by ALLaM 34B, the world’s largest Arabic-first large language model.
ALLaM 34B was trained on over 500 billion Arabic tokens, integrating cultural nuances.
This confidence is not without basis. Humain’s rapid growth, global alliances, and independent recognition have already placed it on the map as a serious competitor to established tech giants.
If scale is one pillar of Humain’s strategy, responsibility is the other. The company emphasizes that its infrastructure is hosted entirely in the Kingdom, under national jurisdiction, to ensure sovereignty and trust.
“When we discuss AI deployment at scale, data protection and privacy are not optional considerations, they are fundamental requirements,” said Al-Onaizan.
Smarter Arabic voice interactions with HUMAIN Chat. (Supplied)
“At the core of our approach is full compliance with ֱ’s Personal Data Protection Law. While we meet all regulatory requirements, our true focus is establishing trust and maintaining the highest standards of data governance.”
This approach is designed to reassure both government and enterprise clients that advanced AI can be deployed without compromising security or cultural values.
ֱ’s AI ambitions are no longer abstract policy goals. Through Humain, the Kingdom is building an end-to-end ecosystem that combines infrastructure, models, and applications in one stack.
With ALLaM 34B as its foundation and Humain Chat as its first showcase, the company is proving that Arabic-first innovation can set global standards.
The road ahead will be about scale, global expansion, and ensuring that AI speaks not only in Arabic but with the values and vision of the Arab world.
Saudi-Jordanian forum targets stronger private sector ties
Updated 04 September 2025
Nadin Hassan
RIYADH: Private sector cooperation between ֱ and Jordan is set to strengthen as more than 250 business leaders and officials convened in Amman for a business forum.
Organized by the Federation of Saudi Chambers and the Jordan Chamber of Commerce, the Saudi-Jordanian Business opened on Sept. 3 with the aim of developing a joint economic vision and unlocking new trade and investment opportunities, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The Saudi delegation, led by Federation Chairman Hassan Al-Huwaizi, included prominent business figures, investors, and officials from the ministries of economy and planning, industry and mineral resources, investment, and the General Authority for Foreign Trade.
This comes as trade between the two countries continues to grow, with Jordanian exports to ֱ reaching 612 million Jordanian dinars ($863 million) in the first half of 2025, up from 513 million dinars a year earlier. Imports from the Kingdom also rose to 1.4 billion dinars, compared with 1.3 billion dinars in the same period of 2024.
Al-Huwaizi highlighted that the forum’s role in stimulating economic initiatives and creating new investment opportunities in the region, noting that this year’s edition aims to mark a qualitative shift in relations between the Saudi and Jordanian private sectors, the SPA report stated.
Jordanian Industry, Trade and Supply Minister Yarub Qudah said economic relations between the two countries should be translated into practical partnerships that serve mutual interests.
He added that Jordan’s trade with ֱ is nearly on par with its trade with the US.
Referring to Jordan’s free trade agreements with the EU, US and Canada, Qudah said joint efforts between Jordanian and Saudi businesses could maximize their benefits, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
He also underscored the need to tap new regional and global markets, pointing to reconstruction in Syria as a key opportunity for direct cooperation.
Jordanian Investment Minister Tareq Abughazaleh highlighted the importance of joint sectoral committees in easing business operations and stimulating capital flows.
Jordan Chamber of Commerce Chairman Khalil Al-Haj Tawfiq praised ֱ’s support for Jordan’s economy, noting that Saudi investments in the kingdom have surpassed $15 billion.
On the sidelines, the Saudi-Jordanian Joint Business Council held a meeting to explore ways to deepen trade ties.
Jordan Industrial Estates Co. invited Saudi investors to benefit from incentives across nine industrial cities, which host 975 firms with investments exceeding 3.5 billion Jordanian dinars. The zones currently house 16 Saudi projects worth 133 million dinars.
The forum also featured presentations from the Saudi side on investment opportunities under Vision 2030, covering entry procedures and institutional support for foreign investors.
Bahrain’s non-oil re-exports rise 3% in July, led by UAE
Updated 04 September 2025
Reem Walid
RIYADH: Bahrain’s non-oil re-exports grew 3 percent year on year in July to 63 million Bahraini dinars ($166 million), driven by strong demand from the UAE, which accounted for 35 percent of the total.
ֱ followed with 21 percent, and Singapore with 13 percent, according to data from the Information and eGovernment Authority cited by the Bahrain News Agency.
Key re-exported items included four-wheel drive vehicles valued at 7 million dinars, gas turbine parts at 4.8 million dinars, and jet turbine engines at 4.5 million dinars.
Analysts note that Bahrain’s expanding logistics sector, along with its strategic location, continues to support growth in re-export activity.
While non-oil exports of national origin dipped slightly by 1 percent to 333 million dinars in July, the country’s trade outlook remains positive. ֱ led as the top destination for national exports at 24 percent, followed by the US at 12 percent and the UAE at 9 percent.
Raw aluminum alloys topped the list of national exports at 93 million dinars (28 percent), followed by agglomerated iron ores and concentrates at 44 million dinars (13 percent) and non-alloy aluminum wires at 19 million dinars (6 percent).
Imports grew 17 percent to 544 million dinars, led by China (13 percent), Brazil (10 percent), and Australia (9 percent). The most imported goods included non-agglomerated iron ores and concentrates, aluminum oxide, and aircraft engine parts.
Despite a trade deficit of 148 million dinars in July, up from 66 million a year earlier, Bahrain’s economy is set for growth.
The World Bank forecasts GDP growth of 3.5 percent in 2025, up from 3 percent in 2024, driven by completion of BAPCO refinery upgrades and stronger non-oil activity in infrastructure, logistics, fintech, and tourism under Economic Vision 2030. Growth is projected to average 2.9 percent in 2026-27, supported by continued non-oil expansion and the Sitra refinery upgrade.
Overall, Bahrain’s non-oil trade, particularly re-exports, continues to demonstrate resilience and diversification, reflecting the Kingdom’s strategic efforts to expand its economic base beyond hydrocarbons.
Closing Bell: Saudi main market ends week in green
Updated 04 September 2025
Nour El-Shaeri
RIYADH: ֱ’s Tadawul All Share Index closed Thursday’s trading session on a positive note, rising 36.51 points, or 0.34 percent, to 10,655.61.
Trading turnover totaled SR3.24 billion ($864 million) with 153.19 million shares changing hands, as 123 stocks advanced and 117 declined.
The MSCI Tadawul 30 Index also climbed, adding 6.24 points, or 0.45 percent, to 1,381.79.
In contrast, the parallel Nomu market edged down 113.44 points, or 0.44 percent, closing at 25,559.59, with 40 gainers and 48 losers.
Leading the gains, Thimar Development Holding Co. rose 6.01 percent to SR45.50, while Saudi Fisheries Co. rose 4.21 percent to SR87.90.
Al-Andalus Property Co., Cenomi Retail, and Saudi Enaya Cooperative Insurance Co. advanced 3.90 percent, 3.88 percent, and 2.86 percent, respectively.
On the downside, Marketing Home Group for Trading Co. fell 5.66 percent to SR73.30, followed by Taiba Investments Co. down 4.37 percent and Alahli REIT 1 sliding 2.74 percent.
On the announcements front, Dr. Soliman Abdel Kader Fakeeh Hospital Co. secured two Islamic credit facilities totaling SR720 million to support operations and growth, including SR570 million with Saudi National Bank and SR150 million with Saudi Awwal Bank. Shares of Fakeeh Care closed slightly higher at SR39.86.
Ataa Educational Co. reported a 31 percent rise in net profit to SR82.8 million for the year ending July 31, 2025, up from SR63.4 million the previous year.
Revenue grew 0.63 percent to SR640.7 million, while operational profit increased 6.57 percent to SR147.7 million, driven by higher student enrollment, increased non-recurring revenues, and a significant reduction in losses from discontinued operations. Shares of Ataa rose 1.46 percent to SR62.45.
Manufacturing was biggest recipient, drawing SR35.12 billion
Wholesale and retail trade, including motor vehicle repair, attracted SR18 billion
Updated 04 September 2025
Nirmal Narayanan
RIYADH: Foreign direct investment inflows into ֱ rose 24 percent in 2024 to SR119 billion ($31.7 billion), even as global FDI slowed, official data showed.
According to the General Authority for Statistics, manufacturing was the biggest recipient, drawing SR35.12 billion and accounting for 29 percent of total inflows.
Under Vision 2030, the Kingdom aims to attract $100 billion in FDI annually by the end of the decade as part of efforts to diversify away from crude revenues.
Commenting on the latest performance, Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih said: “The results of foreign direct investment in the Kingdom for 2024 come against the backdrop of global economic challenges and a slowdown in the growth rates of global direct investment flows internationally, which reflects the Kingdom’s ability to face all economic challenges,” according to the Saudi Press Agency.
In an X post, the Ministry of Investment said inflows in 2024 surpassed the National Investment Strategy’s annual target of SR109 billion. It added that ֱ has exceeded its FDI goals for four consecutive years, with annual targets set to climb from SR140 billion in 2025 to SR388 billion by 2030.
Wholesale and retail trade, including motor vehicle repair, attracted SR18 billion, or 15 percent, followed by construction at SR17.51 billion, and financial and insurance activities at SR16.19 billion. Professional, scientific and technical activities accounted for SR9.81 billion.
The information and communication sector received SR6.34 billion, while mining and quarrying drew SR5.15 billion. Transportation and storage attracted SR5.06 billion, followed by administrative and support services at SR1.58 billion, and accommodation and food services at SR1.10 billion.
According to GASTAT, FDI outflows surged to SR39 billion in 2024 from SR10 billion a year earlier. Net inflows fell 6 percent to SR80 billion. The Kingdom’s FDI stock reached SR977 billion at year-end, up 9 percent from 2023.
By stock volume, the UAE led with SR161 billion in 2024, followed by Luxembourg with SR101 billion, and France with SR69 billion.
ֱ attracted SR18.38 billion in new inflows from the UAE, SR14.94 billion from Germany, and SR14.65 billion from the US. In terms of net inflows, the US ranked first with SR11 billion, followed by the UAE with SR9 billion.
