Foreign investments in Saudi market exceed SAR 370 bln: Al Rumaih

Mohammed Al Rumaih, CEO of Saudi Exchange (Tadawul)

Foreign investments in Saudi market exceeded SAR 370 billion, up more than 8% year-on-year (YoY), Mohammed Al Rumaih, CEO of the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), said on the sidelines of the EFG Hermes London Conference.

The value of foreign investments stood at SAR 7 billion in 2017, he told Al Arabiya.

These investments reflect a high level of growth as a result of many reforms and improvements on the legislation level led by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and at the technical level guided by the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), and as a result of an encouraging economic climate, he said.

Work is underway in London, a global financial center, to attract more investments, which indicates the interest of investors and asset managers in the Saudi market.

Al Rumaih also noted that there are nearly 12 CMA-issued approvals for companies that will be listed in the coming period, with another 50 listing applications currently being studied.

He further pointed out the diverse sectors such as the real estate, information technology, finance, retail and the inclusion of sectors for the first time in the market. In addition, in a given sector, there are companies at various stages of growth—from maturity to inception. This is what the market is looking for and investors prefer due to the variety of opportunities and options.

The CEO also said that the market is witnessing new types of offerings, particularly, the growth of ETFs, and debt offerings, which witnessed momentum at the end of last year. This, in turn, encourages the rest of the companies.

Meanwhile, he expects the momentum of the debt market to grow and become similar to the stock market in the medium term.