Saudi CMA fines former Mobily chairman for insider trading

Saudi Arabia’s market regulator has fined the former chairman of Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Abdulaziz bin Saleh bin Abdullah Alsaghyir, for insider trading, while also ordering his investment firm to pay SAR 280 million ($75 million).

Alsaghyir was fined SAR 100,000 ($26,600), the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a statement on Monday. He has also been banned from managing portfolios, being an investment adviser and working for any listed companies in Saudi Arabia.

Abdulaziz Alsaghyir Business Investment Co., of which Alsaghyir is the founder and chairman, was ordered to pay SAR 280 million for the losses it avoided on its investment portfolio as a result of the violated trades.

The CMA also fined Hisham bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Alsaghyir and Faisal bin Mohammed bin Abdulmohsen Alashgar SAR 100,000 each. Mohammed bin Abdulmohsen bin Mohammed Alashgar was fined SAR 200,000.

All three have also been banned from working for any Saudi-listed company, managing portfolios or working as investment advisers.

Mobily, the Kingdom's second largest telecom firm, is recovering from accounting irregularities discovered in 2014 that led to nearly SAR 1 billion of losses.

Following this, the market regulator had started in 2015 a probe into Mobily's finances.

At the time, the company's board report showed that Alsaghyir had cut his stake in the company from 15 million shares to 5.5 million throughout 2014.

The CMA said another fine of SAR 100,000 was imposed on Alsaghyir for not informing the market regulator of the change in the percentage of his ownership of Mobily shares. This fine was levied following a verdict from the Appeal Committee for the Resolution of Securities Disputes.