IT really does boggle the mind.
This Sunday 19th October/25th Dhul Hijjah is a working day in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), it is also a significant day for investors across the world. It is the day when the KSA’s National Commercial Bank (NCB) will be offering it’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Shares. 15% of the Shares will be available at a total value ranging between 5 to 6 BILLION dollars. The interesting bit is that this is for Saudi Citizens only.
But, and the really big BUT is that the religious committee that issues Fatwas have officially prohibited Muslims from buying shares in any financial institutions dealing in usury, which includes Sunday’s IPO planned by the NCB. Ouch! Who’s gonna buy the shares then? ‘Together as One’ eh? Good Luck with that. I actually agree with the Fatwa, what really suprises me is that in Islamic Law Usury is an evil, it is banned YET this is the statement from NCB themselves:
The NCB’s Shariah advisory council issued a statement on Thursday in which it stated that “after much thought and deliberations regarding the issue, the bank considers the IPO in the bank’s stock to be permissible according to Shariah.”
What a faff, I wonder if any of the Banks advisory council members also sit on the Fatwa council? Line yer pockets, it’s permissable. NOT.
Interestingly Saudi Arabia plans to open its $600 Billion stock market to institutional foreign investors for the first time next year. Last month they issued a set of draft rules for international investors, the Capital Markets Authority said a qualified foreign investor must be:
- a bank
- a brokerage
- a fund manager or
- an insurance company
- AND with at least $5 billion in assets under management
Basically not me 🙁 and probably not you reading this.
There is an individual 5% ownership limit in a single listed company and a collective 20% ceiling for qualified foreign investors. Nice one, I shall endeavour to find a way to invest. Incidentally that $600 billion stock market eval? Well methinks that Saudi Aramco has a lot more than that just in surplus CASH believe it or not.
Camel herding is a profitable business(!)