Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco) shares yesterday began trading for the first time, gaining 10 percent in the first moments on the market and pushing its capital to US$1.88 trillion, making it the most valuable listed company in the world.
The state-owned oil giant started trading on the Saudi Tadawul after a mammoth US$25.6 billion initial public offering that set the record as the biggest ever in history and beat Chinese tech firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) US$25 billion listing in 2014.
Trading of Aramco shares began at 10:30am in Riyadh.
Photo: Reuters
The company had announced a sale of 1.5 percent of its shares at 32 Saudi riyals a share.
At a pretrading auction earlier in the morning, Aramco’s shares reached their 10 percent cap at 35.2 riyals a share, according to Saudi state TV.
This made Aramco more valuable than the top five oil companies — Exxon Mobil Corp, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Chevron Corp and BP PLC — combined.
Aramco is selling 0.5 percent of its shares to individual investors — most of whom are Saudi Arabian — and 1 percent to institutional investors, most of which are based in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf.
The company has exclusive rights to produce and sell the kingdom’s energy reserves. It was founded in 1933 with the US’ Standard Oil Co, and became fully owned by Saudi Arabia by 1980.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman plans to use the money raised from the sale of a sliver of the kingdom’s crown jewel to diversify the economy and fund major national projects that create jobs for young people entering the workforce.
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