Sustainability has moved to the center of GCC economic strategy, but whether capital markets reward it has remained largely untested. Using firm-level data for GCC-listed companies from 2020 to 2025, alongside a survey of 36 institutional investors with regional exposure, this paper finds that sustainability performance is priced into the cost of debt but less so into the cost of equity.

Meet the authors

Claudia Belahmidi
Oil & Gas
Meet the expert
Fatih Yilmaz
Climate & Sustainability
Meet the expert
Rumi Mahmood
Meet the expert
Anett Husi
Meet the expert
Lauren Yeung
Meet the expert