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Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul Exchange to Launch ESG Index

Mark Segal August 17, 2020

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul Stock Exchange plans to launch an ESG-themed index in Q4 2020 or Q1 2021, according to Tadawul CEO Khalid Al-Hussan. The index will be launched in cooperation with MSCI, a leading index provider and investor information and service company.

The Saudi exchange recently emerged as one of the world’s top ten by market cap, vaulted by last year’s IPO of energy giant Saudi Aramco.

Al-Hussan said:

“Globally we understand that ESG is becoming an investment requirement and we don’t want to be behind this in the Saudi market.”

According to Al-Hussan, the sustainability-themed index will contain at least 70 Saudi-listed companies. While the market cap of the exchange is dominated by energy companies (78% at the end of 2019), these are primarily mega-cap names with most of the exchanges roughly 200 listed companies in sectors including Banks (#2 by cap at 8%), materials (6%) and telecom (2.5%).

Mark founded ESG Today following a 20 year career in investment management and research. Prior to founding ESG Today, Mark worked at Delaney Capital Management (DCM) in Toronto, Canada, most recently as the firm’s head of U.S. equities. While at DCM, Mark was part of the firm’s ESG team, responsible for evaluating and tracking the sustainability factors impacting portfolio companies, and assessing the suitability of companies for portfolio inclusion. Mark also spent several years in the sell-side research industry, covering the technology and services sectors. Mark holds an MBA from Columbia University in New York, a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, and is a CFA charterholder.