Aramco IPO will be launched in 2021

/ Policy & Regulations / Sunday, 07 October 2018 13:21

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced that Aramco’s IPO will go ahead by early 2021.

The Crown Prince has launched a progressive digital transformation program for the KSA – which has been established in an effort to steer the country from being an oil-based economy to a much more technologically advanced one.

The Aramco IPO was seen as being the key enabler in the Saudi Vision 2030 program, but the initial public offering was scrapped earlier this summer by King Salman.

The oil behemoth was planning to float 5% of its stock on the New York Stock Exchange – which would make Aramco’s IPO the world’s biggest ever stock sale. However, following a number of consultations with Aramco officials and fiscal experts, King Salman called the IPO off in August.

However, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has refuted claims that the plan to take Aramco public has been permanently suspended - and indicated that the stock is likely to be floated by 2021.

 In an interview with Bloomberg, bin Salman said, "I believe late 2020, early 2021. The investor will decide the price on the day. I believe it will be above $2 trillion because it will be huge."

The crown prince vehemently denied that the KSA had halted the plan after media reports suggested that financial advisors tasked with working on the IPO had been disbanded.

Bin Salman added, “Everyone heard about the rumors of Saudi Arabia cancelling the IPO of Aramco, delaying that, and that this is delaying Vision 2030. This is not right."

But Aramco executives have repeatedly cited unfavorable market conditions to push back the IPO, earlier scheduled for this year, with many observers skeptical whether the listing will happen at all. The crown prince told Bloomberg that the IPO was 100% in the best interests of the kingdom.

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