Seven companies will start trading in Saudi Arabia next Sunday on a parallel market designed to boost the role of small and medium firms, the bourse said Monday.
The new market, called Nomu, “is an alternative trading platform with lighter listing requirements compared to the main market,” the Saudi Stock Exchange, Tadawul, said on its website.
Nomu requires firms to have a market value of at least 10 million riyals ($2.7 million), a minimum of 35-50 shareholders and at least 20 percent of shares publicly owned.
The stock exchange statement did not identify the seven companies to be initially listed.
But it said the second market “opens new investment possibilities for listed companies in terms of diversifying funding resources to further increase growth and business development.”
Firms listing on the main market must have a minimum capitalization of 100 million riyals, or 10 times that of the new platform.
Under Saudi Arabia’s wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to diversify the oil-dependent economy, small- and medium-sized firms are to contribute 35 percent of gross domestic product, up from 20 percent.
The Tadawul All Shares Index, which has a capitalization of about $400 billion, in 2015 opened to direct investment by qualified foreigners for the first time.
Under Vision 2030, the kingdom plans to float less than 5 percent of state oil company Saudi Aramco on stock markets in the world’s largest initial public offering.
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