SAUDI Arabia is preparing to formally launch a secondary offering of shares in oil giant Saudi Aramco as soon as Sunday (Jun 2) that could raise more than US$10 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The government, which is Aramco’s largest shareholder, plans to run a book-building process to gather investor interest until next Thursday, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The stock sale has already attracted informal interest from investors across the Middle East and Europe totalling over US$10 billion, the sources said.
No final decisions have been made on the offering period and terms of the deal, including its size, could still change, the sources said. Aramco did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Aramco’s stock has dropped about 11 per cent since the start of the year when Bloomberg News first reported the government’s intention to offload a stake. The shares hit their lowest levels in roughly a year this week.
The follow-on offer would come almost five years after Saudi Arabia raised about US$30 billion in Aramco’s initial public offering, which was the world’s largest-ever stock sale.
Proceeds from the share sale will help fund big initiatives to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pushes into artificial intelligence, sports, tourism and projects such as the US$1.5 trillion development, Neom. BLOOMBERG
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