Mohammed Al-Kuwaiz, Chairman of the Saudi Capital Market Authority, announced that the authority has shifted its priorities from encouraging dual listings of foreign companies to supporting the listing of national companies on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), citing the growing number of Saudi companies seeking to go public.

Al-Kuwaiz said in statements reported by Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper on the sidelines of “Finance Week,” organized by the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises in Riyadh, that listing foreign companies on the Saudi market leads to capital outflows outside the country. This prompted the authority to reorient its priorities in favor of entrepreneurs and local enterprises.

However, he also confirmed that the market remains open to foreign companies under two main conditions: relocating their headquarters to the Kingdom and ensuring that IPO proceeds remain within the Saudi market without being transferred abroad.

On performance, Al-Kuwaiz noted that foreign investments in the main market and the parallel market “Nomu” have reached around 160 billion dollars so far, while foreigners account for 20 percent of trading activity in Nomu. He also revealed that Nomu’s current market capitalization is about 10.7 billion dollars, comprising 150 listed companies.

He added that since its launch in 2017, Nomu has contributed to financing small and medium enterprises with about 2.1 billion dollars through capital increases and shareholder exits, with 20 of those companies moving to the main market. He also pointed out that crowdfunding platforms are now providing financing worth 2.1 billion dollars annually to small and medium enterprises.

Al-Kuwaiz further highlighted a notable trend in the structure of the Saudi market, where the debt instruments and bond market has become larger than the equity market over the past three years.