Saudi Arabia To Allow OTC Trade Of Shares In Suspended Or Delisted Firms

Saudi Arabia’s securities market regulator said on Wednesday that it would permit off-market trading of shares in companies which had been suspended or delisted from stock exchange.

The Capital Market Authority has issued rules covering such trade and will immediately start receiving requests from companies to conduct it, the authority said in a statement on the exchange’s website.

Partly in order to prepare the stock market for its opening to direct foreign investment early next year, the CMA has been tightening its supervision of the market. The latest rules appear designed to help shareholders realise some value from companies caught in the crackdown.

In July, new rules took effect compelling companies with losses totalling 50 per cent of their capital to announce plans to remedy their financial standing, and imposing penalties including share suspensions on firms with bigger losses.

Early this month, the CMA said it was suspending trade in shares of Sanad Cooperative Insurance and Reinsurance Co while the company carried out instructions by the central bank to strengthen its business.

Last year, authorities ordered the delisting of Saudi Integrated Telecom Co, a relatively small and new firm which had struggled for months under the weight of its losses.