All Tadawul-listed issuers must offer disclosures in English and Arabic – Saudi regulator

Saudi Arabia’s stock market regulator has now made it mandatory for all issuers of listed securities on Tadawul to make any notification to the exchange and disclosures to the public in both Arabic and English.

The decision, taken by the Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) board, takes effect from January 1, 2021, a statement said.

The CMA said an exception will be made for investment traded funds (ITFs), who will have to make the disclosures in English and Arabic starting from April 1, 2021.

The regulator said the decision comes amidst its “continuous endeavour to regulate and monitor full disclosure of information relating to securities and issuers, and to enhance transparency, facilitate the flow of information to the investors and to the public, and to limit risk in security transactions”.

The CMA also said it evaluates disclosure requirements and makes necessary amendments to “increase the quality and comprehensiveness of disclosure in the financial market” as well as to monitor the level of compliance.

“Furthermore, allowing information to be in both Arabic and English languages bring fairness to the local and foreign investors, and contributes to raise the level of research, studies, and evaluations conducted on the Saudi financial market. This provides more accurate information and fairness assessments to market participants which help them make their investment decisions based on information from reliable sources in a timely manner,” the statement added.

Saudi Arabia has seen a flurry of new share offerings this year, in contrast to some of its neighbours. Grocery chain BinDawood Holding attracted almost $29bn in bids from investors for its $585m share sale this month, and the stock surged about 10 per cent in each of the first three days of trading. Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Services Group, the biggest Saudi Arabian listing this year, saw orders for more than 80 times the shares on offer and the stock has almost doubled since the listing in March.

With inputs from Bloomberg