DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia announced on Friday its decision to sell a second tranche of stock in its state oil giant Aramco, estimated to be worth up to $11.9 billion. This is the first such sale since Aramco’s initial public offering in 2019.
Saudi Aramco, officially known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., confirmed the stock sale in an online corporate disclosure. The company is offering 1.545 billion shares, priced between $7.12 and $7.73 each. The sale to institutional investors begins on Sunday, followed by a sale to retail investors on Monday.
With a market value of $1.8 trillion, Aramco ranks as the world’s sixth most valuable company, trailing behind Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), and Amazon.
Since the 2019 IPO, only 1.73% of Aramco has been traded on Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock exchange. The new offering represents an additional 0.64% of the company’s total shares. Despite this sale, the Saudi government remains the dominant shareholder in Aramco, with shares also allocated to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth funds to aid in diversifying the economy away from oil dependence.
Aramco shares were around $7.75 each on Thursday, although they have decreased nearly 12% in value since the beginning of the year. Last year, Aramco reported a profit of $121 billion, down from its record profit in 2022 due to lower energy prices.
