Saudi cabinet scraps mandatory offering of finance firms

Saudi Arabia’s cabinet has scrapped the mandatory offering of finance companies’ shares to the public, state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.

The decision came after the Shura Council’s financial committee upheld in April 2018 a request by the finance ministry to cancel the mandatory initial public offering (IPO) of finance companies.

According to the Saudi law on supervision of finance companies, financiers are required to sell a certain percentage of shares in IPOs at least after two fiscal years, on condition of generating target profit.