Saudi Arabian Oil Co’s (Aramco) nine-month profit fell 18 percent as lower oil prices eroded sales ahead of a share sale that could be the world’s largest.
The oil giant earned net income of US$68.2 billion compared with US$83.1 billion for the same period a year ago, it said in a statement posted on its Web site.
The state company’s revenue slipped to US$217 billion from US$233 billion.
Aramco gave no explanation for the decline in its results, although its nine-month income alone exceeded the net posted last year by Apple Inc, the most profitable publicly traded company.
Average Brent crude dropped about 11 percent over the nine-month period compared with the previous year. Saudi Arabia has been cutting oil output along with other global producers to shore up prices amid a surplus and signs of weaker demand.
Aramco kicked off an oft-delayed initial public offering (IPO) on Sunday, revealing potential tax cuts and dividends to lure investors.
The Saudi government has conceded the company probably is not worth the US$2 trillion valuation Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has long targeted.
On Sunday, banks involved with the IPO released estimates below US$1.5 trillion and valuations that varied by US$1 trillion.
Aramco’s US$111 billion annual net income for last year made it the world’s most profitable firm. The prince is counting on those earnings and Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves — the world’s biggest deposits of conventional crude — to attract investors.
Yet the company’s oil infrastructure has barely recovered from an drone and cruise missile attack in September that briefly cut Saudi’s oil production in half, revealing its vulnerability.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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