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Extracted Text (OCR)
Privatisations & ownership limits could increase weighting
However, our analysis of Saudi Arabia’s weighting could be significantly understated for
two reasons, including: (1) our analysis currently uses a foreign ownership limit (FOL) of
0.2 (as previously guided by the MSCl). This could be understating Saudi’s weighting
given the increase in foreign ownership introduced in the CMA’s announcement. Indeed,
if we increased our FOL factor to 0.4, Saudi would be 2.8% of the MSCI and could
attract US$21.3.bn of inflows; and, (2) Saudi Arabia (according to local press and the
NTP) is seeking a number of privatisations in the coming 24 months, including a
potential IPO of Aramco. Inclusions of these companies would likely increase Saudi’s
weighting in the MSCI EM index and thus attract higher inflows to the market.
Inclusion of energy assets could see Saudi accounting for 4.1% of MSCI EM
By way of example, we believe inclusion of Saudi Aramco in the Saudi market would
profoundly affect the weighting of Saudi Arabia in the MSCI EM in our view. Indeed, if
we were to replicate the analysis above using the Deputy Crown Prince hypothetical
valuation of US$2tn for Saudi Aramco and a 5% inclusion factor (given 5% or less of
Saudi Aramco would be listed according to interviews with the Deputy Crown Prince),
Saudi Arabia would account for 4.1% of the MSCI EM index and likely attract cUS$31bn
of inflows from passive and active funds. We note, our calculations are highly sensitive
to the inclusion factor that MSCI would ultimately use (we assume 5%, in line with its
estimated free float of 5%). An inclusion factor of 10% for example, would see Saudi
Arabia accounting for 6.6% of the MSCI EM index.
Chart 52: If energy assets were included, Saudi Arabia would be the seventh largest constituent of
@ CHINA
m KOREA
= TAIWAN
@ INDIA
m SOUTH AFRICA
@ BRAZIL
SAUD:
@ MEXICO
m RUSSIA
= MALAYSIA (EM)
m INDONESIA
~ THAILAND
m@ PHILIPPINES
TURKEY
© CHILE
m= POLAND
@ QATAR
m UAE
@ COLOMBIA
= PERU
m GREECE
m HUNGARY
EGYPT
m@ CZECH REPUBLIC
Source: BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, MSCI and DataStream
2S Merrill Lynch
GEMs Paper #26| 30 June 2016 47
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