Saudi Arabia Tackles the "Succession Decades"

Co-authored by Chiara Spina of INSEAD and Ayth Almubarak of the National Center for Family Businesses, Saudi Arabia, published 3 November 2025. It states that 95 per cent, or 633,000, of all companies in Saudi Arabia are family businesses employing nearly half the workforce and contributing some 27 per cent of GDP, that 23 per cent of founders are over 55, that 59 per cent lack a clear succession plan and around 75 per cent have no family charter. It records that National Center research shaped Ministry of Commerce guidelines on family ownership relations and that the new Companies Law provides that family-owned companies may enter into a binding family business charter regulating ownership, governance, management, work policies, employment of relatives and profit distribution.