• The Chairman of the Capital Market Authority (CMA), Mohammed ElKuwaiz, revealed that the number of initial public offerings (IPO) in the pipeline across the Saudi Exchange’s (Tadawul) Main market and the Nomu-Parallel market has surged by 30% year-on-year (YoY) to 56, compared to the previous year. ElKuwaiz emphasized this transformation as Saudi Arabia moves towards becoming a net importer of capital, necessitating a distinct infrastructure, as stated during the third edition of the Saudi Capital Market Forum (SCMF).
• ElKuwaiz stressed the need for the private sector's outstanding debt issuances to rise from the current level of approximately 4% of GDP to 18% by 2030. He also highlighted the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector as one of the largest sectors in terms of the number of listings and the amount of capital raised, emerging as the top-performing sector in the Saudi capital market in 2023. These insights were shared during discussions at the SCMF.  SCMF, themed "Powering Growth," built upon the successes of its previous editions, featuring over 54 speakers and 69 sponsors.