Bupa Arabia says re-classifying major shareholder to open more opportunities for foreign investment

The re-classification of Bupa Investment Overseas Ltd. (BIOL) as a Foreign Strategic Investor comes in-line with the Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) instructions issued last June, Al Arabiya TV reported, citing Bupa Arabia For Cooperative Insurance Co.’s chief business development officer, Ali Sheneamer.

The issued instructions exclude the strategic investor’s stake from the upper limit of foreign investor ownership, he said.

“The upper limit of foreign investor ownership in Saudi-listed firms is 49% while Bupa Arabia obtained an exclusion to raise the limit to 60%,” Sheneamer pointed out.

He further added that re-classifying BIOL as a strategic partner to exclude it from the upper limit will provide more opportunity for foreign investments and raise the stock’s weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

According to data compiled by Argaam, BIOL completed, in August 2018, the purchase of an additional 5% stake in Bupa Arabia from Nazer Group for an agreed price of SAR 100 per share, totaling SAR 400 million.

The purchase raised the holding group's ownership in Bupa Arabia to 39.25%.