Saudi Arabia: Capital Market Authority Issues the Final Rules Governing Foreign Investment in Listed Shares
Type
E-journal
Date
8 May 2015
Jurisdiction
Saudi Arabia
Taxonomy
General Banking & Finance Law, Regulation & Offences, General Company Law & Business Entities, Public Companies
Copyright
LexisNexis
Relevant company
Dentons
Analysis
The Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia (CMA) has published on its website this week the final rules governing investment by qualified foreign investors (QFIs) in listed shares (the Final Rules). The Final Rules are issued pursuant to the resolution of the Board of Commissioners of the CMA number 1-42-2015 dated 15/7/1436H (corresponding to 4/5/2015G).
In addition to publishing the Final Rules yesterday, the CMA published a document that contains answers to frequently asked questions in connection with the Rules, which can be found by accessing this link. It should be noted that the CMA published a first draft of the Rules (the Draft Rules) on its website on 25/10/1435H (corresponding to 21/8/2014G) and gave market participants a window of 90 days to provide their comments and observations on the Draft Rules.
We set out below a few of the differences between the Final Rules and the Draft Rules:
• the Final Rules state clearly that QFIs shall have the right to exercise all of the rights attached to the shares that they own, including trading rights issues;