Saud Al-Tassan, CEO of EFG Hermes Saudi Arabia, revealed that major international companies, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, are showing great interest in entering the Saudi financial market (Tadawul).
He stressed that the Public Investment Fund (PIF), through its acquisition of local companies, plays “a major positive role in raising the quality in all sectors, which made investors aspire to a larger stock market.”
Al-Tassan was speaking in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, on the sidelines of the EFG Hermes Saudi Forum, which was held on Monday and Tuesday in London, under the theme, “Looking for Sustainable Growth.”
The event was attended by 370 participants, including investors, businessmen and representatives of more than 50 Saudi joint stock companies, in addition to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Capital Market Authority, Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Kuwaiz, and the Executive Director of the Saudi Tadawul, Mohammed Al-Rumaih.
Al-Tassan said that the outcome of the forum was “very positive,” pointing to the great cooperation between Tadawul and Saudi Hermes, which managed the IPOs of major companies, including Aramco, ACWA Power and Americana in the Saudi market.
Asked about the challenges facing foreign investors in the Saudi financial market, the CEO of EFG Hermes Saudi Arabia pointed to the percentage allocated to foreigners, which is approximately 15 percent, noting that in some markets in the world, foreign investors’ share exceeded 50 percent.
“The reason for this is the strong internal demand for the Saudi financial market. This is very important, but with time we hope to see an increase in the permitted percentages of foreign investments,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Al-Tassan stressed that this matter would not prevent the achievement of the Saudi financial market’s ambition to become one of the five largest global markets, saying that Tadawul was now among the 10 largest markets in the world.
“[Tadawul] was very far from this rank when Vision 2030 was announced in 2016; therefore we are optimistic that it will become among the top 5 markets by 2030, and may surpass this rank,” he remarked.
Regarding the sectors that will constitute the engine of this growth, he said: “We expect all sectors to achieve growth, especially since we, in Saudi Arabia, have all the ingredients to become one of the largest competitors at the global level.”
Al-Tassan continued: “We are here [in London] not because of oil. Oil has been in Saudi Arabia for a long time. What has changed now, under the guidance of the wise leadership, is that the focus has become on non-oil sectors. Oil helped us reach this stage, but we are optimistic about other sectors that have had a significant impact on the Saudi market.”
