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Only half a year after opening up to international fund houses, the Saudi Stock Exchange has already registered nine Qualified Foreign Investors (QFI) and a further two QFI clients. On paper it sounds impressive: between them, these businesses have more than $5.65 trillion under management. However, that sum is skewed by BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, which accounts for $4.5 trillion of the total, based on its asset position on September 30, and the extent of its investment to date is the setting up of a New York-listed Saudi ETF under its iShares arm.
A total of $126 million of Saudi Arabian stock market assets are currently held under the QFI framework – and $115 million of that is the transfer of swap holdings, under the previous P-note structure for investment, into the underlying stock, as any new QFI licencee is obliged to do. The total accumulated net investment under QFI is just $9.2 million; QFI funds account for a barely visible 0.03% of the overall Saudi stock market.
Are the numbers disappointing? Adel Al-Ghamdi, chief executive of the Saudi Stock Exchange until his surprise resignation on November 12, says not.
