RIYADH: The opening up of Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange to international investors has attracted scrutiny of the Kingdom’s publicly traded companies and their standards of compliance and integrity, according to the CEO of SABIC.
Yousef Al-Benyan, CEO and chairman of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), said that companies with the highest standards of corporate governance would benefit most from rising foreign investment in the Kingdom.
The petrochemical giant hosted a conference in Riyadh on Thursday aimed at promoting integrity and transparency which attracted corporate leaders from around the world as well as NGOs and government representatives.
“By strengthening integrity and compliance capacity across the Saudi supply chain, companies and investors can grow with confidence. The opening of the Saudi stock market to foreign investors is increasing attention on the compliance practices of our companies. Those who meet international standards and expectations will be in the driving seat to secure new investment,” said Al-Benyan.
He said that the the event aimed to highlight corporate integrity’s links with growth and investment.
The event follows the opening of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) to foreign investors and its recent listing on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MSCI), an international market benchmark that provides additional assurance to potential investors.
