​The Capital Market Authority (CMA) invited specialists, interested persons and the public to give their opinions and remarks on the Amended Draft of The Instructions of Book Building Process and Allocation Method in Initial Public Offerings, which is made available on the CMA's website starting today, and for 30 calendar days, through the official communication channels of the CMA. The CMA assured that all suggestions and remarks will be taken in full consideration in order to approve the final form of the instructions.

The Authority stated in its announcement, that the amended draft aims to enhance the role of the financial market in facilitating financing, increasing the attractiveness of the market to investors and stimulating investment opportunities, and in pursuance to the Authority's program "to Achieve Saudi Vision 2030".

The CMA also highlighted that this comes in continuance to its efforts aiming to regulate the participation in the book building process for initial public offerings of companies' shares by benefiting from the previous experience, from the date of adopting the instructions which was on 15/10/1437H corresponding to 20/07/2016, in line with the best international practices in this field.

The most significant aspects in which the amended draft is aiming for are; widening the scope of the participating parties in book building which included the legal persons affiliate to one of the GCC, as well as reducing a number of restrictions related to determining the price range and the coverage of an offering by the participating parties. The amended draft also including a change in the mechanism of determining the subscription price by giving the financial advisor in coordination with issuer the authority to specify the subscription price according to the supply and demand with consideration to a number of measures, and the change of the mechanism of share allocation by giving the financial advisor in coordination with issuer the authority to allocate shares as it deem appropriate.

Moreover, the public, the specialists and interested parties can send their remarks and observations to the Authority through any of the following: E-mail: (Laws.Regulations@cma.org.sa), Fax: (+966114906460); or Mail Address: (P. O. Box 87171 Riyadh 11642, to Legal Affairs & Enforcement Deputy – Laws and Regulations Department).

And the instructions draft can be viewed through the following link:

The Instructions of Book Building Process and Allocation Method in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)