Saudi Arabia working with Lazard to fund NEOM project: Report

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Saudi Arabia is working with Lazard Ltd. on how to provide funding for mega project NEOM, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The New York-based investment bank is helping the Kingdom evaluate financing options, including debt sales and a potential initial public offering on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), according to the people. 

Deliberations are in the early stages and no firm decisions about the size or structure of any financing have been taken, the people said.

Last July, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that NEOM will likely be publicly listed in 2024. He added that phase one of the project will cost SAR 1.2 trillion till 2030, while there would be SAR 200-300 billion allocated by the government for NOEM, which is different from the SAR 500 billion investment from the Public Investment Fund, according to Argaam's data.