RIYADH – Saudi Aramco is preparing to float a five percent stake in2020-2021 to raise $100 billion, which will value it at nearly $2 trillionin what could be the world’s biggest IPO.
Amin Nasser, chief executive officer of Aramco, said that the company is“ready” for the IPOlink.He confirmed it would be a two-stage listing process, and flagged apossible foreign listing as part of the offering.
Some of the international destinations vying for the listing include Tokyo,London, Hong Kong, and New York.
The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) is expected to be the main market for SaudiAramco’s upcoming listinglink,Capital Market Authority (CMA) Chairman Mohammad ElKuwaiz said on Wednesday.
“The market’s readiness for the listing is our priority, particularly sinceit is going to be a large listing,” ElKuwaiz told Al Arabiya.
Tadawul, the Middle East’s largest stock market, has recently completed thesecond and final phase of joining the global index provider MSCI’s EmergingMarkets Indexlink.
It has also been included on global index and analytics provider FTSERussel’s Secondary Emerging Market Status, for which it will complete itsfourth phase of inclusion on Thursday, ElKuwaiz said. The inclusion istaking place in a five-tranche process.
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Procedures to ensure the Tadawul’s readiness for the upcoming initialpublic offering (IPO) began a while ago, and many of the obstacles havebeen removed, he noted, adding that this included opening up the market andjoining global indexes, such as MSCI and FTSE Russel.
He said the Kingdom’s market regulator has been working to make sure thatTadawul is prepared to handle Aramco’s considerably large listing, and thatmarket is now in a “good place” to welcome IPO.
Capital market reforms and economic liberalization are core components ofSaudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 diversification plan that aims to wean theeconomy off its reliance on oil.
ElKuwaiz told Al Arabiya that the market has witnessed more than 75 billionriyals of foreign investment since the beginning of this year, which cameas a result of the market’s inclusion on MSCI and FTSE.
The Tadawul expects 4.6 billion riyals in passive inflows after its fourthphase inclusion on FTSE. Al Arabiya
