The Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco has collected in the course of its IPO a record of the equivalent of 23.1 billion euros from investors. The news agencies Reuters and AFP report, citing insiders.
The three billion shares are to be traded on the stock exchange in Riyad for the price of 32 Rial (equivalent to 7.70 euros), so that the range has been fully exploited. The company comes to a stock market value of 1.53 trillion euros. This makes it the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.
Revenues could go up
The proceeds from the IPO surpass those of the Chinese online group Alibaba, which had raised € 22.5 billion on Wall Street in 2014. Including a placement reserve, it could be at Saudi Aramco 26.5 billion euros.
The IPO was bumpier than hoped: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had expected a market value of two trillion dollars (1.8 trillion euros). Actually, Saudi Arabia wanted to sell five percent to Saudi Aramco and thus redeem $ 100 billion to finance the restructuring of the Gulf State, which was heavily dependent on oil.
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However, foreign investors were also reserved when Saudi Arabia scaled back its expectations. They were skeptical about the climate change debate, Gulf political uncertainties and lack of transparency in Saudi Aramco.
The Group therefore built mainly on investors from the country itself and from the neighboring countries on the Gulf and offered only 1.5 percent of its shares. Saudi Arabian banks offered cheap loans to subscribe to the shares. Therefore, the group initially limited itself to an IPO in Riyadh, a second listing abroad was postponed indefinitely.