Saudi IPO pipeline expands toward 100 approvals despite 12% fall in Tadawul benchmark

Dubai: Saudi Arabia has dozens of companies seeking approval to list shares locally as the kingdom presses ahead with reforms to deepen its financial markets and draw more foreign investors.

“We have listed more than 40 since the beginning of this year and we have the same number that have already applied,” Mohammed Al-Rumaih, chief executive officer of the Saudi stock exchange, said at the FII Priority Asia Summit in Tokyo.

The tally of IPO hopefuls climbs to as many as 100 when adding local firms in the process of seeking financial advisers, he added, describing the pipeline as “very vibrant.”

Saudi Arabia has seen nearly $4.5 billion raised through IPOs on both its main market and Nomu parallel market in 2025, its strongest year since 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The biggest deals included low-cost airline Flynas Co., which has slid since its June debut, and Mecca developer Umm Al Qura for Development & Construction Co., which has been one of the top-performing listings in the region this year.

Al-Rumaih confirmed the kingdom is pressing ahead with reforms to open its equity market to all foreign investors, in addition to taking steps to lift foreign ownership limits. Analysts have said such adjustments would attract more funds to the Saudi market and spark foreign interest in mergers and acquisitions of companies from the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has been accelerating the pace of market reforms in the past six months. The need for foreign inflows has become increasingly pronounced as high spending and lower oil revenues drive the government into deeper budget deficits, threatening to slow investment in the economy.

Regulators are also looking to revive the stock market. The Saudi benchmark Tadawul All Share Index is down about 12% so far in 2025, on course for its worst annual performance since 2015. That has slowed the pace of share sales by large companies, though a clutch of smaller firms are still braving the subdued market. 

Car-rental operator Cherry Trading started trading on the Saudi exchange on Monday, closing nearly 6% below its IPO price in its first session. Almasar Alshamil Education Co. will also debut this week. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has slowed work on IPOs in the wake of the falling index and weak trading debuts, Bloomberg reported previously. Outside of equities, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange operator and markets regulator are focusing on developing the debt and derivatives markets, Al-Rumaih said. 

Debt is becoming increasingly important as companies look to the private sector to help drive development, while the latter will undergo a “major revamp” in the first quarter of 2026, he added, without offering further details.