Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority's (CMA) Board approved the "Instructions for the Foreign Strategic Investors' Ownership in Listed Companies", which will be effective as of the date of their publication.

These instructions are aimed at the foreign legal person who intends to own a strategic shareholding in the listed companies, and for which the aim is to promote the financial or operational performance of the listed companies on the long-term.

Among the most prominent aspects and features of the instructions are that they allow the non-financial foreign investor to invest in the Saudi capital market after it was focused on financial investors; in addition to not setting a maximum or minimum limit on the ownership percentage of the foreign investor in the listed companies, accompanied with the ease in the procedures for opening accounts and owning shares through the Authorized Persons.

Further, the instructions takes into account the imposition of a prohibition period on the foreign strategic investor in respect of disposing of any shares he owned during the two years following the date of ownership of those shares.

Mohammed bin Abdullah Elkuwaiz, chairman of the Capital Market Authority said: "The CMA has approved these Instructions as part of opening the capital market and the Saudi economy to the outside world, as we noticed a growing interest from foreign strategic investors to invest in companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange."

"The Instructions are complementary to the "Rules for Qualified Foreign Financial Institutions Investment in Listed Securities," approved by the CMA in 2015G and which has witnessed numerous developments since they came into effectivity. However, while the Rules are targeting the qualified foreign financial institutions (Financial Investor), these Instructions are concerned with foreign strategic investors,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service