Since the introduction by the Capital Market Authority (the "CMA") of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the "Kingdom") of the Merger and Acquisition Regulations approved by the Board of the CMA pursuant to its Resolution No. 1-5-2007 dated 21/09/1428H (corresponding to 3 October 2007), there has been only one public M&A transaction: Almarai's acquisition of Hail Agriculture Development Company in 2009. The public M&A market of the Kingdom remains largely undeveloped. However, recent changes to the regulatory regime and market activity indicate that there is growing anticipation that public M&A transactions will boost the deal activity in the Kingdom in the coming period. This note provides a high-level overview of the current regulatory regime of the Kingdom governing public M&A transactions.
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