Saudi Aramco raises a record $25.6bn in world’s biggest IPO

Saudi Aramco is a Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

It is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue, and according to accounts seen by Bloomberg News, the most profitable company in the world.

The state oil giant priced its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) at the top end of its range, making it the world’s largest new listing.

Aramco raised $25.6bn, surpassing Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba’s 2014 $25 billion share sale in the U.S, giving Saudi Aramco a valuation of $1.7 trillion.

This is more than the combined market capitalization of the five biggest international oil companies.

This means Aramco will topple Apple as the world’s most valuable listed company, says the Guardian. Apple is valued at $1.17 trillion.

While setting a new record, the IPO still falls well short of Saudi Arabia’s initial lofty expectations”, says CNN.

The Saudi government initially discussed floating 5 percent of the company in 2018 in a deal that would raise as much as $100 billion, the outlet says, but the project was shelved. The deal was revived this year, says CNN, “but international investors were far less convinced about buying Aramco stock. Among their concerns: Low oil prices, the climate crisis, and geopolitical risks”.

The reasons for listing Aramco “have not changed”, says The Economist: “Saudi Arabia needs to move beyond oil, which accounts for nearly 70% of government revenues. That would be a dangerous dependence in any era, let alone one with swelling youth unemployment and doubts about long-term demand for fossil fuels in a world worried about climate change.”

Aramco did not say when shares would start trading on the Saudi stock market, but two sources tell Reuters that it is scheduled for 11 December.