“We’re bringing new technology, new initiatives, new mindsets to the market,” Chou said in an interview with the Post at the Saudi Tadawul Group’s flagship Capital Markets Forum in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Valuable Capital, the second-largest online broker in the city by trading volume, is backed by Chinese technology company Sina Corp.
Saudi Arabia is seeking to open up its stock market to more foreign investors as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to diversify the economy away from oil under the Vision 2030 strategy. The market capitalisation of the Tadawul, the Middle East’s largest bourse, has risen 11 per cent over the past three years.
Sahm Capital developed its trading platform and management system in-house instead of relying on vendors, the first in the kingdom, Chou said. To attract new users, it has employed promotional tactics, such as offering free US stocks on signing up and waiving fees for market data through in-app vouchers.
“It [the tactics] could be quite common for us in Asia, but it is very new in Saudi Arabia,” Chou said. “These are the very factors that [set us apart] from the other players.”
Sahm Capital has signed up some 300,000 users and opened more than 100,000 new trading accounts this year, a third of which are funded, said Chou. “It’s a massive success for us. We’re opening over 2,000 accounts per day.”
Sahm’s initial success comes as Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia forge closer ties and explore ways to allow investors to invest money into each other’s capital markets.
The retail market in Saudi Arabia is “low hanging fruit” for Sahm Capital, as the kingdom has the largest population in the Gulf region, with an estimated 6 million young, active, local individual investors, according to Chou.
Sahm Capital is also looking to transition into a more comprehensive financial services provider, and is in the process of acquiring additional licences for investment banking and asset management in Saudi Arabia.
The approval is expected by June or July, which will allow it to serve a broader client base including companies and funds, according to Chou.
“I believe Saudi Arabia is the new future for all,” he said. “We wish to [raise the] level of the [Saudi] market by bringing new technologies and know-how to enhance the market’s efficiency, enrich its regulatory regime and bring in a new marketing approach.”