Saudi Aramco Raises $25.6B, Becomes Largest IPO In World's History

Saudi Arabian Oil Company announced it had raised $25.6 billion in its long-awaited initial public offering on Thursday, Bloomberg reported.

What Happened

The state-owned oil company, better known as Saudi Aramco, offered 3 billion ordinary shares, which are about 1.5% of its total shares, priced at $8.53 each. The numbers put Aramco’s total valuation at $1.7 trillion.

The final price announced by Aramco is on the higher end of the target it announced earlier in November.

Aramco said at the time that it would price the shares between $8 to $8.53, putting the company’s valuation between $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion.

The Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman previously put the company’s valuation at $2 trillion in October 2018. 

According to Bloomberg, many international institutional investors stayed away from the IPO as they deemed it “overvalued.” 

Nevertheless, sufficient local interest from both institutional and retail investors ensured a successful IPO for Aramco.

World’s Biggest IPO

The oil company’s IPO has become the biggest IPO ever raised anywhere in the world, beating the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s BABA $25 billion IPO raised in 2014.

If the IPO’s underwriters exercise the overallotment option to sell an additional 450 million shares with the next 30 days, Aramco could increase the raised amount by another $3.8 billion to about $29.4 billion.

Aramco has previously said that it will list its shares on the Riyadh stock exchange Tawadul sometime in December. According to the Wall Street Journal, the listing could happen by December 11.

The oil company has no immediate plans for an international listing.