Aramco’s IPO delay a silver lining for Riyadh stocks

DUBAI: There is a silver lining for Riyadh-traded stocks in the delay to Saudi Arabian Oil Co’s (Aramco) massive initial public offering (IPO).

While putting the oil giant’s market debut on hold has reduced Saudi Arabia’s likely profile on emerging-market equity indexes when the kingdom joins them next year, the decision has removed a threat to investments in other Saudi stocks from what was set to be the world’s largest IPO.

Listing Aramco would be “very positive long term, but at the time of the IPO, our biggest concern would be a drain of liquidity, because you would see a lot of investors selling off their shares in order to fund their applications for the IPO”, Fahd Iqbal, head of Middle East research at Credit Suisse Group AG, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“With the removal of that IPO for the time being, it removes a little bit of that overhang.”

When the IPO was initially flagged in 2016, Saudi officials hoped it would raise as much as US$100 billion (RM410 billion), based on a US$2 trillion valuation that some analysts and investors have said was too high. With Aramco valued at those levels, Saudi Arabia was set for a weighting of almost five per cent in MSCI Inc’s emerging market indexes, according to estimates by EFG-Hermes Holding Co, bigger than Hong Kong, Russia or Mexico. Without Aramco, it’s looking more like 2.6 per cent.

Saudi Arabia last week placed the share sale on hold as Aramco instead focuses on buying a stake in petrochemical maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp for as much as US$70 billion.