Saudi Foreign Ownership Spans 0.75 to 39 Percent Six Months After the Opening
Foreign investors hold zero point seven five percent of Saudi Aramco against a permitted limit of forty nine percent, according to the Saudi Exchange’s foreign ownership report updated on 9 August. Because Aramco is valued at about six point four one trillion riyals, or roughly sixty seven percent of the whole Main Market, that small percentage is worth about forty eight billion riyals, the second largest foreign holding on the exchange by value.
The report sets actual foreign ownership against each company’s ceiling for every listed security. It measures foreign investors excluding foreign strategic investors, and includes interests held under swaps. Six months after the Capital Market Authority abolished the Qualified Foreign Investor regime on 1 February, opening the Main Market to all categories of foreign investor and eliminating the regulatory swap framework, the table shows ownership rates that vary enormously between companies.
| Company | Foreign ownership rate | Limit |
| Rasan | 39.27 percent | 49 percent |
| East Pipes | 30.11 percent | 49 percent |
| Albabtain | 29.42 percent | 49 percent |
| Etihad Etisalat | 23.66 percent | 49 percent |
| Jarir | 22.22 percent | 49 percent |
| Saudi National Bank | 18.88 percent | 49 percent |
| Tawuniya | 18.83 percent | 49 percent |
| Al Rajhi Bank | 15.07 percent | 49 percent |
| Maaden | 11.29 percent | 49 percent |
| Saudi Telecom | 10.08 percent | 49 percent |
| SABIC | 7.24 percent | 49 percent |
| Saudi Aramco | 0.75 percent | 49 percent |
Applying those rates to the market capitalisations in the exchange’s weekly report for 6 August produces a very different ranking. Al Rajhi Bank carries the largest foreign holding at about fifty eight billion riyals, Aramco second at about forty eight billion, and Saudi National Bank third at about forty six billion. Maaden follows at about twenty six billion and Saudi Telecom at about twenty two billion. Rasan, which has the highest ownership rate on the exchange at more than fifty times Aramco’s, accounts for about four billion riyals. These values are calculated from the two exchange reports and are not figures the exchange itself publishes.
Banking shows the highest rates among the large companies. Banque Saudi Fransi stands at sixteen point zero six percent, Saudi Awwal Bank at sixteen percent, Bank Aljazira at thirteen point two, Riyad Bank at thirteen point one four, Alinma at thirteen point one and Arab National Bank at twelve point five three. Several carry separate foreign strategic holdings outside the reported figure, including thirty one percent at Saudi Awwal Bank and forty percent at Arab National Bank.
The ceilings vary. Most companies are capped at forty nine percent. Real estate investment trusts, exchange traded funds and closed ended funds carry a hundred percent limit, as does Americana. Mutakamela and Bupa Arabia are set at sixty percent. Bahri is the outlier at zero, other than for foreign strategic investors.
The securities closest to their ceilings are not Saudi equities. Two exchange traded funds tracking foreign markets, Albilad Hong Kong China and SABI Hong Kong, are ninety nine point seven nine and ninety nine point seven four percent foreign owned. Albilad Gold sits at thirty four point five five percent and Albilad US Technology at seventeen point one.
For the week the report covers, the exchange puts Main Market capitalisation at nine point five three trillion riyals, with the Tadawul All Share Index closing at ten thousand eight hundred and eleven point five seven on 6 August, up two point zero nine percent on the week on value traded of twenty six point eight two billion riyals across two million four hundred and sixty two thousand trades.
Why it matters: Ownership rates and ownership money point in opposite directions here, and the money is the part that matters. Read as percentages, foreign investors look absent from Aramco and heavily committed to a handful of mid-caps. Read in riyals, Aramco is the second largest foreign position on the exchange and Rasan is a rounding error beside it, because a fraction of a percent of a six point four trillion riyal company is larger than two fifths of a ten billion riyal one. What the table really shows is that foreign exposure to Saudi Arabia is still governed by company size rather than by allocation choices, and that every company on it, Aramco included, has enormous unused headroom against a forty nine percent ceiling. Six months after the rules changed, the constraint plainly is not the rules.
Looking ahead: The exchange updates the report continuously. The number that would move the market-wide picture most is Aramco’s, precisely because its size means each additional percentage point is worth about sixty four billion riyals, more than the entire foreign holding in Al Rajhi Bank today.
Sources: Saudi Exchange; Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia.
