Saudi aims for 24 IPOs on Tadawul by end of 2023

Financial Sector Conference

• Capital Market Authority report lists targets for stock exchange
• Kingdom wants to lift foreign investment in bourse to 16.5% of total

Saudi Arabia hopes to list more than 24 companies on its stock exchange this year, the Capital Market Authority has said.

The Saudi regulator’s annual report, released on Sunday, said the kingdom also plans to increase foreign investments in the Tadawul. By the end of 2023, it wants foreign owned shares to make up 16.5 percent of the total by value.

Mohammed El Kuwaiz, chairman of the Capital Market Authority, told a conference in February that 23 businesses had been approved for Tadawul IPOs in 2023 and another 75 companies were under review.

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The regulator wants the market’s assets under management to be equivalent to 27.4 percent of gross domestic product by December 31.

The target for the debt instruments market is 20.1 percent of GDP by the end of 2023.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, there were 10 stock market listings with combined proceeds of $3.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023, according to the EY Mena IPO Eye report. This was a drop in number (down 33 percent) and value (down 14 percent) compared to Q1 2022.

However, the region still provided 16 percent of total global proceeds of flotations in the quarter. Analysts say the pipeline for the rest of the year will be driven by initiatives such as the Abu Dhabi IPO Fund.