RIYADH: Given that the Saudi government is easing financial markets regulations to encourage more companies to go public, the CEO of Nahdi Medical Co. feels there is no better time than now to explore new opportunities. Talking to Arab News on the sidelines of the Capital Market Forum in Riyadh on Sunday, Yasser Joharji said the giant pharma retailer, which raised $1.36 billion from its IPO last year, is open to expand regionally and add value to the economy by going beyond the borders. “A few years ago, we decided to start building our capability and go outside Saudi Arabia,” he said. “Our experience in the UAE has been a little bit difficult at the beginning with COVID-19 (outbreak), but now we have started getting some exponential performance over there.” When asked if Nahdi is open to ride the financial market innovations wave that were announced at the forum, Joharji said that “even though we have a model that is giving us self-sufficient funding for our expansion, we are open to consider all options for capital funding sources, and going to the market whenever we need funding.” Joharji added: “We believe that we play a major role today as one of the largest listed companies in Saudi Arabia, and we know that this leading position comes with a lot of responsibility. For us in Nahdi what really matters is our guest and our inspiring purpose which is adding (heart) beats to our guests’ life.” Moving forward, the CEO wants to base the company’s future plans on what serves the health and wellness of its guests (customers) as he sees a clear shift in lifestyle. “We have seen the shift in the healthcare system around our guests, and we have seen the shift post-COVID versus pre-COVID,” Joharji explained. “We are using more technologies and information technology and data science to better understand our guests and stay close to them through our brick-and-mortar network of pharmacies and complement that with very strong online infrastructure and business that delivers to them wherever they are.” Both of those layers, he summed up, are complemented by the adjacent services of primary healthcare. He said the company recently embarked on the journey of omnihealth, “where we want to become the gateway of primary healthcare in Saudi Arabia.” “We are proud of our ability to catch the opportunity of providing our guests with digital health services. Telemedicine and on-spot consultation are one of our key enablers to get closer or bring healthcare closer to the people.”