Saudi Main Market IPO Market Leadership

No. 1 legal adviser to issuers by number of completed Main Market IPOs
16 completed IPOs | 25.4 per cent. share by number | 1 January 2021 to 31 August 2026

From 1 January 2021 to 31 August 2026, STAT acted as legal adviser to the issuer on 16 of the 63 Saudi Main Market IPOs completed during the period. This represented 25.4 per cent. of completed Main Market IPOs by number, more issuer-side Main Market IPO mandates than any other law firm.

STAT’s lead was even stronger during the more recent period from 1 January 2023 to 31 August 2026. During that period, STAT acted as legal adviser to the issuer on 11 of the 37 completed Saudi Main Market IPOs, representing 29.7 per cent. of the market by number.

The underlying review covers all Saudi Main Market IPOs completed between 1 January 2020 and 31 August 2026. STAT was joint No. 1 across the full review period and the outright No. 1 from 1 January 2021.

Source: STAT analysis of publicly available Capital Market Authority prospectuses and Saudi Exchange IPO and listing information. Data as of 31 August 2026. Market share is calculated by number of completed IPOs, not by offer value.

Saudi IPO and Equity Capital Markets

STAT advises on the full range of Saudi equity capital markets transactions, including:

• Main Market IPOs;
• Nomu IPOs;
• transfers from Nomu to the Main Market;
• follow-on offerings and secondary share sales;
• rights issues and other equity capital raisings;
• private placements and direct listings;
• Rule 144A and Regulation S offerings;
• demergers and listed-company restructurings;
• public M&A involving Saudi-listed companies; and
• securities regulation, corporate governance and continuing obligations.

Our Equity Capital Markets practice is led by Robert Vydra, Partner and Head of Equity Capital Markets, who has focused on Saudi ECM transactions since 2007 and has led and advised on more than 70 public and private securities offerings, M&A transactions and landmark Sukuk issuances.

We act for issuers, selling shareholders, financial advisers and underwriters. This experience enables us to understand the objectives, responsibilities and execution pressures affecting each principal side of a Saudi IPO.

Full-Lifecycle Saudi IPO Advice

We support clients throughout the complete IPO process, including:

• assessing IPO readiness and identifying execution risks;
• selecting and implementing the appropriate offering structure;
• undertaking pre-IPO corporate reorganisations;
• conducting legal due diligence;
• drafting and verifying the prospectus;
• preparing corporate governance and board structures;
• negotiating underwriting and other transaction documentation;
• advising on Rule 144A and Regulation S requirements;
• managing engagement with the Capital Market Authority and Saudi Exchange;
• supporting institutional bookbuilding, allocation and listing;
• advising on foreign-investor readiness; and
• assisting with continuing disclosure and other post-listing obligations.

Our objective is not merely to complete the legal documentation. We help clients identify material issues early, resolve them directly and protect the transaction timetable and intended market window.

Recent Saudi IPO Experience

Recent publicly announced issuer-side transactions on which STAT’s Equity Capital Markets team has advised include:

• L’azurde Company for Jewelry
• Leejam Sports Company
• Alkhorayef Water and Power Technologies Company
• Theeb Rent a Car Company
• Tanmiah Food Company
• Naqi Water Company
• Arabian Drilling Company
• Almawarid Manpower Company
• Morabaha Marina Financing Company
• Lumi Rental Company
• Saudi Manpower Solutions Company
• Al Taiseer Group TALCO Industrial Company
• Tamkeen Human Resources Company
• Arabian Company for Agricultural and Industrial Investment
• United Carton Industries Company
• Marketing Home Group for Trading Company
• Cherry Trading Company
• Saleh Abdulaziz Al Rashed & Sons Company

These transactions span the Main Market and Nomu and include domestic offerings, international Regulation S offerings, IPO-related corporate reorganisations and transfers from Nomu to the Main Market.

Landmark Saudi and GCC Capital Markets Experience

The broader experience of our lawyers, including transactions completed before joining or co-founding STAT, includes:

• the US$29.4 billion Saudi Aramco IPO;
• the first demerger by way of an IPO by a Saudi-listed company;
• the first Rule 144A securities offering by a Saudi corporate issuer;
• the first high-yield Sukuk offering by a GCC issuer;
• the first Sukuk in the GCC to qualify as bank capital for regulatory purposes; and
• the first public M&A transaction in Saudi Arabia.

Our team’s experience extends from the formative years of the Saudi Capital Market Law through the development of the Main Market, Nomu, international offerings, public M&A and the increasingly sophisticated disclosure and governance requirements applying to Saudi issuers.

Debt Capital Markets and Sukuk

STAT also advises issuers, originators, arrangers, dealers, investors and other market participants on Saudi domestic and cross-border debt capital markets transactions.

Our experience includes:

• standalone Sukuk and debt instrument issuances;
• Sukuk and debt issuance programmes;
• Regulation S and Rule 144A offerings;
• regulatory capital instruments;
• secured and unsecured issuances;
• private placements;
• liability-management transactions;
• debt capitalisations;
• special purpose entity structures; and
• ongoing regulatory and disclosure matters.

Our debt capital markets capability is supported by the firm’s Islamic finance, banking, corporate, regulatory and tax practices. This integrated approach enables us to address the legal, Shariah, regulatory, structural and execution issues arising on complex Saudi and international issuances.

Partner-Led Execution

Our capital markets transactions are led directly by experienced partners who remain actively involved throughout the matter.

We combine:

• detailed knowledge of Saudi law and market practice;
• extensive experience dealing with the Capital Market Authority and Saudi Exchange;
• Arabic and English drafting capability;
• international securities-law experience;
• practical transaction management;
• senior involvement in prospectus drafting and verification; and
• an integrated approach across corporate, finance, regulatory and Islamic finance workstreams.

STAT’s Equity Capital Markets team was named Equity Capital Markets Legal Adviser of the Year at the Capital Markets & ESG Finance Saudi Arabia Awards 2026, having previously received the corresponding recognition for 2023 at the awards ceremony held in 2024.

Our experience includes a start to finish approach in both advising and implementation in all corporate governance and internal legal affairs matters such as entity set up, the internal governance structuring, administration and compliance, employment matters, and general commercial agreements, as well as significant transactions such as joint ventures, acquisitions, divestments, reorganisations, group structuring and restructuring.

STAT’s lawyers provide an offering that enables clients to leverage STAT’s deep experience and insight along with a strong capability of on the ground execution and implementation. Our team has extensive experience of advising on the drafting and negotiating of all forms of contractual arrangements.

We also provide a strong offering in the internal corporate and governance structuring which includes the preparation of all internal corporate governance policies and manuals.

By providing clients with practical, creative legal advice, our lawyers both prevent and resolve disputes while ensuring focus remains on their strategic and commercial objectives.
We have a unique offering of our “multi-practice” strength, advising our clients on disputes across the different practice and all the key industry sectors including industrial, financial institutions, energy, infrastructure, transport, technology and innovation and healthcare.

We provide clients in the Kingdom (including conventional and Islamic commercial banks, development finance institutions, corporates, investment funds and sovereigns) with advice on a range of conventional and Islamic financing issues relating to the structuring, development, documentation and negotiation of a variety of finance transactions.

Our finance lawyers in the Kingdom are experienced in, and work fluidly across, all aspects of financings. We regularly advise on:

On the Islamic finance front, our specialists have extensive experience in structuring, documenting and negotiating complex transactions and developing innovative Sharia-compliant techniques, including in relation to Murabaha, Ijara, Wakala, Istisna, Salam, Mudaraba, Musharaka and other structures including Sukuk issues.

Our Islamic finance capabilities span banking, capital markets, project finance, asset finance, restructuring and investment funds. We have advised on many of the “firsts” in Islamic finance.

We regularly advise leading international, regional and local asset managers and institutional investors on the formation and structuring of, and investment in, different types of investment funds in the Kingdom.

Our tailored approach, backed with our in-depth understanding of the regulatory and compliance issues, makes STAT the go-to counsel for both local and international assets managers and investors.

We recognize that every transaction, regardless of its size, is important to our clients. While we advise many of Saudi Arabia’s largest companies, investment banks and other regular participants in the M&A market, we also represent numerous clients that are not regularly engaged in M&A transactions.

We bring the same practical approach, creativity and commitment to excellence to each matter in which we are engaged. Clients rely on our team to guide them through transactions that will ultimately transform their organizations.

Corporations and financial advisors trust that we understand their business needs and that we will offer pragmatic and solutions-oriented advice, negotiating aggressively on their behalf and providing focused execution throughout each deal.

Combined with our transactional expertise, we also cover the full range of specialist areas to provide a 360-degree analysis of all related aspects of an M&A transaction, including antitrust and competition, commercial, employment and benefits, environmental, intellectual property, and corporate governance.

Our clients span a broad range of industries, including mining, energy, real estate, healthcare, telecommunications, retail and financial services.

Thanks to our involvement in the largest and most significant projects in the Kingdom as well as in many “mega” project finance projects, we have unrivalled knowledge of risk allocation and management, as well as the commercial, technical, market and political factors necessary to help you identify structures to maximize revenue generation and get the best value for our clients.

Our dedicated team of lawyers have wide-ranging knowledge in the development of concession-based and regulated infrastructure models and strong experience in running RFP procurement processes, which enables us to advise on all the aspects of the procurement through to financial close.

These include real estate acquisition and disposition, leasing, restructuring, property management, development management and real estate financings.

Our clients enjoy our innovative approach especially given the current changes to the real estate regulatory landscape which in turn made real estate transactions in many cases more complex and highly structured. 

We work daily with key Saudi government ministries and agencies, including on the implementation of Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan. 

We are deeply familiar with the structure of the Saudi government and the institutional and regulatory framework in Saudi Arabia and regularly advise on regulatory reform projects, complex matters of public international law, transactions and disputes.