Saudi Aramco announced that in its initial public offering (IPO) on the Saudi exchange (Tadawul), it would price its shares at $8.53 (SAR 32) per share, with 3bn shares to be listed, comprising 1.5% of the company’s share capital.
This would make Aramco’s listing the world’s largest, beating Alibaba’s $25bn IPO at $25.6bn. The company initially said it would price shares between $8 (SAR 30) and $8.53 (SAR 32), eventually settling on the higher end of the range.
This means the company is valued at $1.7trn, shy of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s $2trn valuation. Still, it will be the world’s most valuable publicly traded company once official listed.
Goldman Sachs Group is the share stabilising manager, and can therefore put in action a greenshoe option of 450mn shares up to 30 days after trading begins. That means the IPO could net up to $29.4bn.
Proceeds will go to the Public Investment Fund, the crown prince’s primary investment vehicle and driver of economic diversification.
