Saudi Aramco offering could raise as much as $13 billion

Saudi Aramco’s long-anticipated secondary offering, which could raise as much as $13.1 billion and rank among the most lucrative share sales since the company’s own IPO five years ago, gets underway next week.

The government filed papers on Thursday to start the booking process for investor orders that will lead to the sale of a 0.64% chunk of the world’s largest oil producer on the Tadawul Stock Exchange in Riyadh. Aramco will start taking orders from institutional investors on Sunday, June 2.

State-owned Aramco will earn about $12 billion if it chooses to sell the shares at the top of its indicated pricing range and could add another $1.1 billion by exercising the so-called greenshoe option in the likely event that demand from investors is high.

“The offering provides us with an opportunity to broaden the shareholder base amongst both Saudi and international investors,” Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser told reporters on a call after the announcement, Reuters reported. “It also offers us an opportunity to increase liquidity and to increase our global index weighting.”

Selling the shares will provide the kingdom with cash to fuel Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s $1.5 trillion Vision 2030 campaign to diversify the economy amid the global transition from fossil fuels. The government has recently extended the timeline for Neom and some of its mega-projects because of funding shortfalls as oil production cuts have reduced Aramco revenue.

At the top end of the price range, the Aramco deal would be the sixth-largest share sale since the company raised $30 billion in its 2019 initial public offering, Bloomberg reports.