Saudi Arabia spearheaded the Gulf Cooperation Council’s IPO momentum in 2024, cementing its dominance in regional capital markets. A Kamco Invest report places the Kingdom among the top players worldwide in total IPO proceeds, underscoring its pivotal role in GCC listing activity. The year saw Saudi firms account for a substantial share of listings and capital raised, reflecting a broad-based surge in regional market dynamism despite headwinds in global IPO markets. The GCC’s overall IPO environment remained buoyant in 2024, driven by a mix of private and state-backed offerings, sectoral strengths, and structural reforms that supported investor confidence. The Kingdom’s leadership in the IPO space aligns with ongoing reforms, vision-driven privatizations, and a proactive approach to weaving Saudi Arabia more deeply into the regional and global financial fabric. The year’s outcomes also set a clear trajectory for 2025, reinforcing expectations that Saudi Arabia will extend its market leadership with a robust pipeline of upcoming listings.
Saudi-led GCC IPO activity in 2024
The GCC’s primary market issued 53 listings in 2024, with Saudi Arabia responsible for 42 of these deals, a dominant share that highlighted its outsized role in the region’s capital-formation dynamics. This concentration of listings in Saudi Arabia signaled not only the size of the domestic market but also the depth of its investor appetite, corporate reform agenda, and government-supported privatization initiatives. In terms of global standing, Saudi Arabia ranked seventh worldwide for total IPO proceeds, a testament to the scale and speed of its market activity during the year. The GCC as a whole recorded a net increase in listings and proceeds, illustrating a rebound from 2023’s lower base and signaling renewed investor interest across diverse sectors. The 2024 surge in listings within the GCC contrasted with a global IPO environment that was among the weakest seen since the 2009 financial crisis, underscoring the region’s unique resilience and market-driven momentum.
Within the GCC, total IPO proceeds reached $12.9 billion in 2024, representing a 19.8 percent rise from $10.8 billion in 2023. This growth trajectory occurred even as global markets faced volatility and cautious investor sentiment, highlighting the GCC’s capacity to attract capital domestically and regionally. Breaking down the regional totals, Saudi companies contributed $4.1 billion, equivalent to 31.6 percent of the GCC’s overall proceeds, underscoring the Kingdom’s central role in driving value and liquidity for the region’s IPO ecosystem. The United Arab Emirates, while still a major source of proceeds, saw a shift in its share, generating $6.2 billion in 2024 but accounting for 47.8 percent of GCC IPO proceeds—down from 56.3 percent in 2023, signaling a more balanced distribution of deal flow among GCC peers. Oman ranked third in GCC IPO activity, with state-backed privatizations adding $2.5 billion, or about 19.3 percent of total GCC proceeds, reflecting the Sultanate’s active privatization program and its contribution to regional capital markets.
A broader signal of the year’s momentum was the record number of primary market issuers—53 in total—bolstered by vigorous activity in Saudi Arabia. The results pointed to a diversified funding landscape across sectors and instruments, with a notable emphasis on privatization-driven offerings in some Gulf economies and ongoing reforms that encouraged both public and private entities to tap equity markets. The overall surge in listings during 2024 marked a turning point for GCC issuers, illustrating how regional policies, improved market infrastructure, and a supportive domestic investor base could sustain higher volumes even as global markets faced episodic stress. The collective result was a stronger regional capital-formation framework, with 2024 setting a higher baseline for subsequent years.
In parallel, market participants highlighted the significant contribution from the Saudi exchange ecosystem, where the majority of listings anchored on the Nomu–Parallel Market, while the main market still hosted a substantial set of high-profile IPOs. The Nomu–Parallel Market hosted 28 of Saudi Arabia’s listings, reflecting its critical role as a platform for first-time offerings, growth-stage companies, and entities seeking to broaden retail investor participation. The main market accounted for 14 IPOs, indicating ongoing appetite for larger, more established businesses that can access deeper pools of liquidity and institutional capital. The mix between Nomu and the main market illustrated the Kingdom’s balanced approach to expanding market access while ensuring adequate governance, disclosure, and investor protection across segments.
Among the standout listings, Dr. Soliman Abdel Kader Fakeeh Hospital attracted particular attention for its oversubscription, underscoring the health sector’s appeal to Saudi investors and the broader appetite for healthcare infrastructure. The hospital listing drew substantial orders, reflecting confidence in medical service delivery, healthcare branding, and scalable growth prospects in a system undergoing ongoing expansion. Other notable listings included Almoosa Health, Miahona Utilities, and Nice One Beauty Digital Marketing, each contributing to a diversified sector mix and reinforcing the vitality of Saudi’s IPO pipeline. The strong demand across these names underscored the resilience and breadth of Saudi capital markets, even amid challenges such as fluctuating oil prices and geopolitical tensions that could otherwise dampen investment activity.
The sectoral composition of Saudi Arabia’s 2024 IPOs—highlighted by health care, materials, and professional services—reflected strong fundamentals and investor confidence in these industries. Health care’s prominence aligned with long-term demographic and spending themes, while materials highlighted the value of infrastructure development and industrial modernization in the Kingdom. Professional services represented a versatile category capturing the demand for business process optimization, consulting, and technology-enabled service delivery in a dynamic corporate landscape. Taken together, these sectoral signals indicated a market environment where quality revenues, clear business models, and scalable growth potential were the primary drivers of IPO demand. The overarching implication was that market participants viewed these sectors as reliable engines of value creation, helping sustain a robust pipeline amid broader regional uncertainties.
From a global vantage point, the GCC’s performance in 2024 placed the region as a growing financial hub with notable influence on regional capital markets and investor sentiment. The GCC ranked fourth worldwide in IPO proceeds, trailing major global markets led by China, the United States, and Japan. This placement underscored the GCC’s expanding footprint in global finance and its rising importance as a liquidity source for cross-border capital flows. While the global IPO environment suffered from volatility and reduced activity, the GCC’s ability to deliver meaningful proceeds and a steady stream of listings demonstrated its diversification, reform momentum, and capacity to attract both retail and institutional capital. The regional performance also highlighted the strategic alignment of market reforms, privatization programs, and investment in market infrastructure with global investment cycles, enabling GCC issuers to remain competitive on the world stage.
Looking ahead to 2025, Kamco Invest projected a continued expansion in Saudi-led IPO activity, with an estimated 31 IPOs in the pipeline. This projection underscored a sustained push by the Kingdom to maintain leadership in the GCC IPO arena and to drive broader market development across the region. The prospective listings are set to feature a combination of public offerings and private-sector placements, with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) expected to play a central role in catalyzing additional listings. The planned debuts include entries from Saudi Global Ports, Nupco, and Tabreed District Cooling, among others, signaling a diversified lineup spanning logistics, healthcare, and essential infrastructure. In addition, several private companies—flynas, Tabby, and Ejada Systems—were reported to be preparing IPOs, further enriching the pipeline with technology-enabled services, travel, and fintech-adjacent platforms. The overall pipeline suggested a healthy appetite for equity capital issuance in the Kingdom and across the GCC, with a particular emphasis on projects and businesses aligned with policy objectives and national development goals.
In a broader regional context, Oman signaled readiness to accelerate privatizations, with plans to privatize up to 30 assets in the coming years. The government identified Asyad Group and Oman Electricity Transmission Co. as expected candidates to go public in 2025, reflecting a continued push toward privatization-led capital formation and efficiency improvements across state-linked assets. In the United Arab Emirates, market watchers anticipated major listings from the hotel operator FIVE and real estate assets under the Dubai Holding umbrella, alongside potential entries from Dubizzle Group and Alpha Data. Taken together, the regional outlook for 2025 suggested a robust and diversified IPO pipeline, supported by structural reforms, privatization initiatives, and a renewed emphasis on strategic sectors that can attract both domestic and international investors.
Market dynamics and investor bases in 2024
The 2024 GCC IPO landscape benefited from a strong local investor base, which helped sustain demand even amid global macro headwinds. Domestic participation and retail investor engagement were pivotal in sustaining oversubscriptions for several high-profile listings, reinforcing the social and economic underpinnings of market activity in the region. The performance of healthcare, utilities, and professional services segments illustrated investor confidence in resilient business models that can withstand commodity price fluctuations and regional geopolitical tensions. Meanwhile, the UAE’s leadership in absolute proceeds emphasized the region’s continued diversification of capital sources, with large-scale infrastructure and consumer-facing platforms contributing significantly to the overall capital raised.
The year also highlighted the importance of market infrastructure and regulatory clarity in enabling issuance activity. Policy reforms, improved disclosure standards, and a stable regulatory environment provided investors with greater visibility into company fundamentals and growth trajectories. The symbiotic relationship between reforms and market demand was evident in the robust IPO pipeline for 2025, which promised continued opportunities for primary markets to mobilize capital for growth, diversification, and strategic national initiatives. As the GCC seeks to balance oil income with non-oil growth engines, IPO activity emerged as a key instrument for mobilizing private capital, accelerating privatizations, and creating a more dynamic, liquidity-rich financial ecosystem.
Market structure, notable listings, and sector cadence in 2024
This section synthesizes the structural features of the GCC IPO market, with emphasis on Saudi Arabia’s distribution between Nomu–Parallel Market and the main market, as well as the performance and implications of high-profile listings. TheNomu–Parallel Market dominated Saudi listings in 2024, hosting 28 deals, a testament to the platform’s role in nurturing growth-stage and smaller-cap issuers while expanding retail access and investor participation. Conversely, the main market saw 14 IPOs, including prominent cases that demonstrated the potential for large-scale equity offerings within a regulatory framework designed to support price discovery, risk management, and governance standards. The distribution of listings across the two markets reflected a deliberate strategy to diversify issuer profiles and broaden market participation while preserving the integrity and liquidity of more mature listings on the main market.
Within this framework, the standout listing Dr. Soliman Abdel Kader Fakeeh Hospital exemplified the demand dynamics in Saudi healthcare, achieving an extraordinary oversubscription and signaling robust confidence in healthcare infrastructure expansion under the Kingdom’s health sector reform agenda. The hospital’s oversubscription underscored the alignment of investor appetite with strategic public-health objectives, including expanding access to high-quality medical services, driving hospital capacity expansion, and supporting innovation within a regulated healthcare ecosystem. Other notable entries—Almoosa Health, Miahona Utilities, and Nice One Beauty Digital Marketing—demonstrated the sectoral breadth of Saudi IPO activity, contributing to a diversified basket of offerings that balanced essential services, energy-related utilities, and consumer-facing digital platforms. The mix of listings reinforced the importance of diversified sector exposure for investors seeking to spread risk while targeting growth opportunities in a recovering global market.
The composition of Saudi Arabia’s 2024 IPOs—centered on health care, materials, and professional services—reflects a broader trend toward sectors with visible growth trajectories and stable cash flows. Health care investments align with long-term, demographic-driven demand and public-health priorities, while materials and professional services reflect the ongoing need for infrastructure modernization and business process optimization in a rapidly evolving economic landscape. This sectoral cadence contributed to an atmosphere of steadier-than-expected demand, even as the oil market faced volatility and geopolitical pressures. The willingness of Saudi and regional investors to allocate capital to these sectors signals a confidence in fundamentals, governance, and the strategic direction of the Kingdom’s non-oil economy. Taken together, sectoral activity in 2024 revealed a market ecosystem where high-quality issuers with credible earnings stories and scalable opportunities could consistently attract interest, support price discovery, and sustain a steady pipeline into the next year.
Global standing, regional diversification, and 2025 outlook
From a global perspective, the GCC’s 2024 performance placed the region among the world’s notable IPO hubs, even as the overall global market environment faced headwinds. The GCC secured a fourth-place ranking in IPO proceeds on the global stage, trailing major markets in Asia and the Americas but establishing itself as a growing focal point for cross-border capital formation and regional investment flows. This standing highlighted the GCC’s evolving role as a financial hub, with a diversified mix of issuers and a pipeline that reflects long-term economic transformation across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and other Gulf economies. The region’s ability to attract substantial proceeds amid a lackluster global IPO cycle underscores the attractiveness of political and economic reforms, market liberalization, and targeted privatization programs pursued under Vision 2030 and related national agendas.
For 2025, Kamco Invest projected a sustained, even accelerated, pipeline of IPO activity in Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC. An estimated 31 IPOs were anticipated in the pipeline, indicating continued market momentum and policy support for equity financing as a growth mechanism. The Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was identified as a central driver in the forthcoming listings, expected to play a pivotal role in catalyzing activity across strategic sectors and flagship projects. The upcoming listings include initiatives such as Saudi Global Ports, Nupco, and Tabreed District Cooling, alongside the anticipated IPOs from private entities like flynas, Tabby, and Ejada Systems. The mix points to a balance between large-scale infrastructure and services-oriented platforms, reflecting a diversified approach to capital markets development and the financing of Vision 2030 projects.
In parallel, the GCC’s broader pipeline remained robust, with around 40 issuers reportedly eyeing fundraisings in 2025. Saudi Arabia was projected to lead with roughly 30 companies in the pipeline, reinforcing its central position in the regional IPO landscape. This momentum was not limited to Saudi Arabia, as Oman signaled ongoing privatization efforts, including a plan to privatize up to 30 assets and to bring Asyad Group and Oman Electricity Transmission Co. to the market in the near term. In the UAE, attention remained anchored on major listings from FIVE and Dubai Holding’s real estate assets, as well as potential entries from Dubizzle Group and Alpha Data. Taken together, the 2025 outlook painted a picture of a region-wide, multi-sector IPO ecosystem, characterized by privatizations, strategic public offerings, and a continued emphasis on sectors aligning with national development priorities and long-horizon growth.
Sector cadence and investment themes for 2025
The 2025 environment is likely to be shaped by several recurring themes that emerged in 2024 and are expected to gain momentum. Healthcare remains a strategic vertical, with ongoing demand for high-quality medical services, hospital networks, and healthcare IT solutions that enable more efficient patient care delivery. Utilities and infrastructure projects—such as district cooling, water and energy management, and essential services—will continue to attract long-term institutional investment due to their visibility, regulatory support, and predictable cash flows. Professional services and technology-enabled platforms are poised to benefit from the digitization wave sweeping the GCC, creating opportunities for IPOs tied to software-as-a-service models, cybersecurity, and business-process outsourcing. The regional government’s continued focus on diversification away from oil and the attraction of foreign direct investment will underpin investor confidence, with reform agendas designed to improve capital market depth, liquidity, and governance standards.
At the same time, the region will need to navigate a mix of risks and uncertainties. Global oil price volatility, geopolitical tensions, and macroeconomic shifts can influence investor sentiment and capital availability. However, the GCC’s resilience in 2024 demonstrated that a combination of domestic market depth, policy clarity, and a diversified issuer base can help mitigate external shocks. The continuing reform agenda—strengthened corporate governance, improved disclosure, and streamlined listing processes—will be essential to sustaining the pace of IPO activity and maintaining confidence among local and international investors. The 2025 trajectory will thus depend on how effectively regional policymakers balance privatization goals with market integrity, liquidity expansion, and investor protection, while capitalizing on the region’s unique competitive advantages as a growing, diversified financial hub.
Conclusion
Saudi Arabia’s leadership of the GCC IPO market in 2024 underscores a transformative period for regional capital markets, driven by robust listing activity, sectoral diversification, and a proactive development agenda. The Kingdom’s dominance—through a strong contribution to total GCC proceeds, a large share of listings, and a broad-based pipeline for 2025—reflects strategic reforms, privatization efforts, and a growing appetite among domestic and regional investors. The year also highlighted the significance of the Nomu–Parallel Market as a vital platform for nurturing growth and expanding access to capital, alongside the main market’s capacity to host larger, more established IPOs. The UAE’s continued prominence in absolute proceeds, Oman’s privatizations, and broader regional momentum collectively signal a healthy, albeit selectively concentrated, appetite for equity financing across the GCC.
Looking ahead, expectations for 2025 point to a sustained, region-wide IPO ecosystem marked by a healthy pipeline and continued leadership from Saudi Arabia. The planned listings across key sectors—ports and logistics, healthcare, utilities, and technology-enabled services—reflect a strategic alignment with Vision 2030 and related national development programs. The involvement of the PIF and a broader mix of public and private sector issuers are set to shape a dynamic market environment, with private companies such as flynas, Tabby, and Ejada Systems preparing for public capital raises. While regional challenges and global headwinds may periodically test market sentiment, the GCC’s demonstrated resilience, reform momentum, and diversified deal flow position it to sustain long-term growth and further establish itself as a global financial hub. The conclusion of 2024 invites a careful, optimistic outlook for 2025, with the region poised to deepen investor confidence, broaden market participation, and continue driving capital toward transformative development across Saudi Arabia and the broader Gulf.
