Aramco to reveal IPO price range on Monday

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, will reveal the price range for its initial public offering on the kingdom’s stock exchange next week, providing insight to the overall valuation of the company.

Aramco published its 658page prospectus on Sunday, in which it revealed up to 0.5 per cent of the company’s shares will be offered to retail investors. The document did not reveal how much of the company will be offered to institutional investors through its domestic listing. A dual listing of its shares on an international exchange could follow at a later date.

“Individual investors will subscribe based on a set price which will be the highest end of the price range to be announced ... on November 17, 2019,” the company said yesterday. The subscription period for individual investors will run from Monday through to November 28. A final price for its offer will be determined and announced on December 5.

Aramco is the largest integrated oil and gas company in the world, producing one in every eight barrels of crude oil. In 2018, the company produced 13.6 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, including 10.3 million bpd of crude.

Documents filed for a bond prospectus earlier this year revealed that it is the most profitable company in the world, making $111.1 billion on revenue of $355.9bn last year.

For the first nine months of 2019, Aramco recorded a net

Documents filed for a bond prospectus earlier this year revealed that it is the most profitable company in the world

profit of $68bn. “The Saudi Aramco initial public offering will provide Arabian Gulf markets with significant momentum and attract global institutional investors to the region,” Ryan Lemand, senior executive officer at asset managers ADS Investment Solutions said following the publication of Aramco’s prospectus.

Following its listing, Aramco is planning to pay a dividend on $13.4bn for the quarter ending September 30 and will declare an interim dividend of a maximum $9.5bn pending board approval, the company said.

The company’s IPO is central to Riyadh’s ambitions to transform the kingdom’s economy. Funds from the share float are expected to boost spending on Vision 2030 realisation projects such as the $500bn futuristic economic free zone Neom and the Red Sea Project, a mega-tourism attraction, as the kingdom opens up its tourism and entertainment sector.