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1 December, 2015Euromoney, December 2015
Adel Al-Ghamdi doesn’t come across as a regular Saudi. He speaks with great delight about being in London as if it is home, having begun his career there with various European arms of Riyad Bank. He is a Chelsea fan who reckons his fortunes move with the team’s. And, more than anything, he communicates with clarity and vigour rather than the secrecy that is traditionally associated with the Kingdom.
Read this at Euromoney.com here
But is that difference the reason he is longer the CEO of the Saudi Stock Exchange?
It would be understating the matter to say that Al-Ghamdi had a busy November. At a roadshow organized by Euromoney Conferences in Singapore, London and New York, Al-Ghamdi’s keynote presentations were notable for detail and the availability of hard information, something for which the Gulf states are not always renowned. Institutional investors in attendance, not known for suffering fools or opacity gladly, were both publicly and privately impressed.
All of which made it extremely strange that within a week of the conclusion of the New York leg of the roadshow, Al-Ghamdi’s resignation was announced by the exchange on November 12.
Nobody seems to have a clear answer on what happened; figures within the Exchange say they can’t comment, but even there, there’s a tone of some disbelief.
