Offers size in drive to list shares of foreign companies.
The Saudi Government wants to open petroleum market to foreign investitors giving them the opportunity of becoming partner of this market. Qualified foreign institutions were allowed to invest directly in this market under condition of satisfying some specific aspects. In order to bring more foreign money, the Capital Market Authority has established some guidelines, through which it will be possible for Saudi Companies enter international equity indexes. The purpose of this program is being as competitive as Dubai Market already is, which has already entered international equity indexes and got listing foreign companies. Anyway the Saudi Market is one of the biggest of Gulf Area, so this means companies listing in Saudi Arabia can obtain better trading liquidity for their shares, higher valuations and a larger investor base when they raise fresh capital, he argued. It would be necessary promoting some reforms, which allows increasing the local market. The expectations are to reduce the gap with Dubai. In addition to this, to increase the local and small local companies listings, it was created a parallel market, called NOMU.