Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is in talks with SACE, an Italian insurer and export credit agency, for €3 billion ($3.1 billion) in loan guarantees, Bloomberg reported.

If a final agreement is reached, Sace will provide guarantees to a group of international banks lending the money to the $1 trillion sovereign fund, the news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.

The talks follow Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where agreements worth $10 billion were signed. This included SACE guaranteeing a $3 billion financing agreement for giga project NEOM under a multicurrency untied facility.

The volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached nearly $10.80 billion in 2023. The kingdom’s imports from Italy were valued at $5.9 billion, while its exports accounted for $4.9 billion in the same year, including $737 million in non-oil exports.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)