Saudi Aramco Targets Sale of 0.5% of Oil Firm to Retail Investors in IPO

Saudi Aramco is looking to sell up to 0.5% of the state oil giant to retail investors in its planned initial public offering (IPO), three sources told Reuters.

The Saudi oil group has not yet revealed the size of its planned IPO or what proportion of the company it will float, although sources have previously said this could be 1-2%. It is expected to release more details about the company in an IPO prospectus document later on Saturday.

Assuming Aramco achieves a total valuation of $2 trillion, the retail tranche could be worth around $10 billion, the sources said on Saturday.

Aramco fired the starting gun on the domestic IPO last week after a series of false starts. It did not give details on how much would be sold, or when the listing would happen, while expert valuations vary from $1.2 to $2.3 trillion.

A government committee has met in the past few months with dozens of wealthy Saudi individuals to secure pre-sale agreements, sources told Reuters last month.

And the government has encouraged investors to repatriate cash held overseas to buy into the IPO to avoid draining too much liquidity from the Saudi banking system, Reuters adds.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*