A new IPO prospectus released by Saudi Aramco on Saturday revealed that the company will sell 0.5 percent of its shares to individual investors such as Saudi nationals, non-residential Saudi’s and also other citizens from GCC countries. The Saudi government will have a lock-in period of a year on further share sales after the IPO.
However, the Aramco prospectus, which is more than 600 pages long, did not reveal the number of the shares which will be made available to institutional investors. According to local media reports, there are currently 200 billion shares in existence with Saudi Aramco.
Saudi Aramco has issued the prospectus for its IPO on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). Reportedly, the company will sell around 1 percent or 2 percent of its shares on the Tadawul.
Aramco, which is the world’s most profitable company, revealed that the IPO will start on November 17 and close on December 4, 2019. A final offer price, as well as the number and percentage of company shares that will be sold, will be determined at the end of that period.
The Aramco prospectus revealed that individual investors will have time till November 28 to apply for shares on the Tadawul. It also revealed that Aramco has a lower gearing ratio than each of the Five Major IOCs comprising ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, Total and BP.
Even though Aramco decides to sell less than 2 percent of its shares, reportedly, it will still be the world’s biggest share sale, eclipsing the $25 billion which Alibaba raised in its IPO in 2014. Aramco’s initial plan was to sell 5 percent of its shares on the Tadawul and raise around $100 billion.