The government of Saudi Arabia is selling shares in the oil company Aramco worth 11.2 billion dollars, or about 10.28 billion euros.
In the deal, the government will sell 1.55 billion shares at a price of 27.25 rials, or 6.67 euros. Before the sale, the share price was around 29 rials.
According to Bloomberg, the offer book was filled quickly last Sunday, and according to the news agency’s sources, the sale is about to take place. The bidding round was supposed to end on Thursday.
According to news reports, the shares have been in good demand among foreign investors. The situation has changed since the listing in 2019, when international investors shunned the company.
Aramco is the world’s largest oil company and investors are especially interested in the company’s generous dividends. The company pays about 124 billion dollars in dividends annually. The company’s market value is just under 2000 billion dollars 1.83 thousand billion dollars. In terms of market value, the company is one of the largest in the world and was momentarily the world’s most valuable in the spring of 2022. Now in the U.S. Microsoft’s, Nvidia and Apple’s the values are a little over three thousand billion dollars.
The government of Saudi Arabia owns 82 percent of the company, and the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund owns 16 percent.
The government of Saudi Arabia is supposed to use the sales proceeds to reform the country’s economy.