Riyadh – Mubasher: The Capital Market Authority (CMA) approved some 116 capital increase requests by listed companies from January 2018 to the end of the first half (H1) of 2022, with a value surpassing SAR 100 billion.

This reflects CMA's role in providing financing to listed companies and the economy at large, according to a recent press release.

In this respect, Abdullah Binghannam, CMA Deputy for Listed Companies and Investment Products, said that the capital hike requests approved by the CMA varied between increases through a capitalisation issue, offering of a rights issue, and debt conversion. The capital increase transactions concluded through capitalisation issues dominated 60.30% of total approvals, followed by those carried out through a rights issue and debt conversion with 37.10% and 2.60%, respectively.

Binghannam reiterated that approval procedures for capital raise requests go through critical phases to study the proposals from their announcement to completion. Such data should be consistent with the goals of the CMA Strategic Plan (2021-2023), one of the Financial Sector Development programmes representing one of the Saudi Vision 2030’s initiatives.

The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 aims to establish an advanced, open-to-the-world capital market that is capable of attracting local and international capital.

The CMA recognises the importance of the capital market, being a channel for capital building and formation in order to support companies' growth and sustainability, Binghannam noted.