CMA unveils strategic plan 2021-2023, targets 68 new listings

The Capital Market Authority’s logo

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced its strategic plan 2021-2023, through which it seeks to position the Saudi capital market as the Middle East’s main market and one of the most important financial markets in the world.

The strategy’s objective is to make Tadawul an advanced and attractive market to local and foreign investment, enabling it to play a pivotal role in developing the economy and diversifying its sources of income.

The strategic plan includes four main pillars:

Facilitating Funding: Deepening the capital market, enhancing its role in raising capital, developing the sukuk market and debt instruments, and supporting the growth of alternative financing mechanisms.

Encouraging Investment: Supporting the growth of asset management, enhancing institutional investment, raising the market's attractiveness to the foreign investor, diversifying investment products and mechanisms in the market, in addition to improving trading mechanisms.

Promoting Confidence: Adopting a risk-based supervision methodology and promoting mechanisms for dealing with qualitative violations, enhancing market stability, investor protection and dispute resolution procedures, as well as enhancing governance and transparency for market participants.

Building Capacities: Developing the capabilities of financial market institutions and market infrastructure institutions, raising awareness and financial culture in the market, and facilitating development in data and technology solutions.

The CMA seeks to attract foreign investors, whether in the issuance market or direct market access (DMA), expecting the proportion of foreign investment to raise the market capitalization. It also aims to deepen the market and attract more developing companies through a parallel market full of companies and an efficient main market. 

The authority expects the number of listed companies on the main and parallel market to exceed 270. 

In addition, it strives to double the investment funds so that the asset management volume exceeds SAR 800 billion, whether from funds, portfolios, or other innovative financial tools, including private-equity funds, venture capital (VC) and the financial technology (Fintech). 

The strategic plan included listing of 20 companies in 2021, while the foreign investors' ownership ratio reached about 15% of the free-float market cap. 

 * The market value of shares excludes the market value of Saudi Aramco, and the market value of debt instruments, according to the Securities Depository Center Co. (Edaa)