Oil giant and stock markets

Oil giant Saudi Aramco listed its shares on the Tadawul, which is Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange.

Last week, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. raised a record of $25.6 billion in its initial public offering in Riyadh.

It is worth mentioning that share sale was the biggest in history. The previous record dates back to 2014 when Chinese e-commerce Alibaba raised $25 billion in New York.

Saudi Aramco wanted to raise $100 billion on two exchanges.

The plan consisted of two parts. The first part was to offer its shares on the kingdom’s Tadawul stock exchange. The second part of the plan was to use the London Stock Exchange. It took longer than expected to deal with various factors connected with IPO.

Oil giant and IPO

Nevertheless, various problems, such as climate change, geopolitical tensions, and a lack of corporate transparency, undermined this plan. It took longer than expected to deal with various factors connected with IPO.

Another factor that affected the initial plan is the firm’s $1.7 billion valuation.

Aramco’s initial public offering is the largest one in history but is still is not as high as expected by the kingdom.

The market valuation is less than $2 trillion. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Bin-Salman expected that the company’s valuation would reach around $2 trillion.

International investors are cautious when it comes to such deals due to several issues connected with Saudi Aramco.

Consequently, Saudi Aramco decided to focus on Saudi investors and its Arab allies. Furthermore, Saudi banks offered citizens cheap credit to boost the interest in the shares.

Saudi Aramco relied on domestic as well as regional investors to sell a 1.5% stake of the company.

It is important to mention that Saudi Aramco is the most profitable, publicly listed company in the world. Investors from around the world are willing to invest in the company