dubai dec 8 reuters  saudi arabias stock exchange has 50 applications from companies for initial public offerings ipos next year and is considering whether to allow blankcheque companies known as spacs to list the saudi tadawul group chief executive said on wednesday a spac or special purpose acquisition company raises money to acquire a private firm with the purpose of taking it public and allowing the target to list more quickly on an exchange rather than via a traditional ipo khalid alhussan the ceo of bourse owner and operator tadawul said the exchange was discussing business models and assessing appetite for spacs in the kingdom but added that no legal framework had been proposed as yet we are looking very closely to this recent development about spacs and we absolutely look forward to add this element to our market hussan said after tadawul made the debut of its shares earlier in the day we have to make sure that this vehicle is in demand by the investors as well as by the issuers he said tadawuls shares on wednesday opened at 1154 riyals 3076 almost 10 above its listing price in its riyadh debut it was trading at 11760 riyals in late afternoon trade the bourse which raised about 1 billion through an ipo priced its shares last week at the top of the range at 105 riyals each read more saudi arabias equities index is up 27 so far this year tadawuls share sale was the countrys second biggest offering after acwa power international which raised 12 billion from investors hussan said about 20 to 25 of the 50 public share sales slated for the market next year were to list on the main board as far as the market momentum i think the markets are still very solid in regards to ipos it is just a fantastic time for us hussan said reporting by hadeel al sayegh and saeed azhar editing by louise heavens and edmund blair