CMA official says fee exemption covers all sectors

The Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) decision to exempt listed companies from paying the fees required by the market regulator includes all sectors, Abdullah Binghannam, the authority’s Deputy for Listed Companies and Investment Products, said in a statement to CNBC Arabia.

Binghannam indicated that the goal of exempting listed companies from paying the fees for one year is to reduce the costs of some measures and enable the companies to get more benefit from their listing.

Raising finance from the stock market should not be deemed only restricted to affected sectors, as it is also used for expansions and overcoming crises, he added.

The market regulator has taken several precautionary measurements since the coronavirus outbreak, said Binghannam, pointing out that the authority is working on a new set of procedures that will be announced in the next few days.

Last week, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) issued a resolution to exempt listed companies for one year, starting from June-end 2020, from paying the applicable fees and continue to exempt debt instruments issuers intending to publicly offer debt instruments from paying the CMA fees until the end of 2025, according to data compiled by Argaam.