7firms to list on 2nd Saudi stock board
RIYADH, Feb 20 (APP/AFP) – Seven companies will start
trading in Saudi Arabia next Sunday on a parallel market designed to boost the role of small and medium firms, the bourse said on Monday.
The new market, called Nomu, “is an alternative trading platform with
lighter listing requirements compared to the main market,” the Saudi Stock
Exchange, Tadawul, said on its website.
Nomu requires firms to have a market value of at least 10 million riyals
($2.7 million), a minimum of 35-50 shareholders, and at least 20 percent of
shares publicly owned.
The stock exchange statement did not identify the seven companies to be
initially listed.
But it said the second market “opens new investment possibilities for
listed companies in terms of diversifying funding resources to further increase growth and business development”.
Firms listing on the main market must have a minimum capitalisation of
100 million riyals, or 10 times that of the new platform.
Under Saudi Arabia’s wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to diversify the
oil-dependent economy, small and medium sized firms are to contribute 35
percent of gross domestic product, up from 20 percent.
The Tadawul All-Shares Index, which has a capitalisation of about $400
billion, in 2015 opened to direct investment by qualified foreigners for the
first time.
Under Vision 2030, the kingdom plans to float less than five percent of
state oil company Saudi Aramco on stock markets, in the world’s largest initial public offering.