By the time a prospectus is drafted, the board's readiness is already largely fixed. The market does not reward intentions; it reads the record. Here is the checklist we run with boards considering a path to the Saudi public markets — well before a transaction is live.
Composition and independence
- Is the board independent enough to satisfy the CMA, and can you evidence it?
- Are the audit and nomination-and-remuneration committees real, with minutes that show genuine challenge?
The control environment
- Can you produce a current, tested map of financial controls — not a policy document, but evidence they operate?
- Have related-party transactions been identified, priced at arm's length, and documented?
The record
- Do board minutes show decisions being interrogated, or only ratified?
- Are the public commitments you have already made — including Vision 2030 commitments — consistent with what diligence will find?
Disclosure discipline
- Is there one source of truth for the numbers, or do finance, strategy, and the board work from different versions?
- Could you answer an underwriter's hardest question today, with documents?
How to read the result
If most of these are "yes, and we can prove it," readiness is a matter of packaging. If several are "we think so," readiness is a matter of work — and the work is far cheaper done now than discovered in diligence. We help boards turn the second list into the first before the clock starts.