Saudi Arabia has formally launched the initial public offering of stock in state-owned oil giant Aramco. The long-awaited IPO is part of plans to move the kingdom away from oil dependency.
Advertisement
Saudi Aramco, the national petroleum and natural gas company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday began a blockbuster domestic initial public offering (IPO) worth at least $24 billion (€21.7 billion) which values it at up to $1.71 trillion.
Aramco, the world's most profitable company, said it would sell 1.5% of the firm or 3 billion shares in what could turn out to be the world's biggest share sale.
Up to 0.5% of the shares are to be sold to individual investors, may sign up for the IPO until November 28. The remaining 1% are being offered to institutional investors, who may subscribe until December 4.
The IPO is expected to be a huge hit among Saudi citizens. The company has launched an advertising blitz with billboards and promotional messages across the kingdom.
Aramco does not plan to market its share sale abroad, three people familiar with the matter said.
The price range has been set between 30-32 Saudi riyals per share ($8-8.5, €7-8).
Sunday's offering is scaled down from original plans to list 5% of the firm to raise $100 billion, which had given it an estimated $2 trillion valuation, Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya reported.
The public listing is part of plans by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to shake up the kingdom's economy and move it away from oil dependence.
The decision has been a long time coming as there have been a number of delays since it was first announced in 2016, including the beginning of a process to acquire a 70% stake in petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp.
Until now Aramco has been solely controlled by the Saudi Arabian government. It is overseen by the country's Ministry of Energy, which is headed by Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, a son of King Salman.
Pipelines in the crosshairs
An alliance of local activists and climate campaigners is resisting the flow of fossil fuels through pipelines around the world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Esiri
Dirty oil
A protester's hands covered in crude oil during a 2011 protest against Royal Dutch Shell after pipeline spills in Nigeria, in 2008 and 2009. Shell allegedly ignored advice to replace the outdated Trans Niger Pipeline, which ruptured and inundated villages in Ogoniland with thousands of barrels of oil. Anti-pipeline movements have been around for decades, and are joining up across the globe.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Esiri
Local resistance
Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) patrol the oil-rich creeks of the Niger Delta of Nigeria in September 2008. MEND militants were alleged to have sabotaged and destroyed crude oil pipelines run by the likes of Shell and Chevron, which they say bring little benefit to local communities and cause massive local environmental destruction.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Esiri
Peru protests
Police stand guard at the entrance of Peru's national oil company in Lima, August 2016, where activists placed a coffin filled with items painted in black to represent a contaminated environment. The state oil company Petroperu has admitted to numerous spills in the old and extensive pipeline system that transports oil from the Amazon to the Pacific coast.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Abd
Mexican rebellion
TransCanada's Tamazunchale Pipeline met with resistance in Mexico during its construction through the country's mountainous and fertile southern region. Several Mexican indigenous communities have joined forces to fight the pipeline. The wall painting here reads: "No to the gas pipeline, we're an indigenous community and demand respect."
Image: DW/D. Therre
Standing Rock
Opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline march out of their main camp in North Dakota in February 2017. The anti-pipeline resistance movement that gathered on Standing Rock Sioux tribal lands became a social media phenomenon under the #NoDAPL hashtag, galvanizing global resistance against attempts to expand the flow of climate change-inducing fossil fuels.
Image: Reuters/T. Sylvester
A movement lives on
A Native American woman recovers after being pepper-sprayed by police after she and other protesters sought to build a new camp to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in late 2016. While the #NoDAPL movement did not succeed in preventing the pipeline from being built, it focused attention on the topic and drew together social justice and environmental movements.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. L. Mone
Trans Mountain Pipeline
More than 10,000 people march in British Columbia in March 2018 to protest Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline, which is to transport tar sands oil to the west coast of Canada and on to Asian markets. After months of protests led by First Nations and environmental activists, the pipeline company halted construction in April.
Image: Rogue Collective
Keystone XL
Lakota spiritual leader Chief Arvol Looking Horse demonstrates outside the White House in 2015 against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. US Republicans authorized the pipeline — but in November 2018, a court again blocked its construction.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/N. Kamm
Trans Adriatic Pipeline
In March 2017, after Italy's State Council permitted construction of Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), demonstrators in Puglia southern Italy clashed with police to protest removal of 1,600 centuries-old olive trees. Several were injured. A 350.org petition claims TAP will "destroy Europe's climate targets" and has "destructive, unjust impacts on the communities in its path."
Image: picture-alliance/ROPI/Fotogramma/De Giglio
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
The TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline project was launched in Herat in western Afghanistan in February 2018, and will carry gas from Turkmenistan to the subcontinent. On hand at the launch were a group of Taliban militants (pictured) insisting they would not sabotage — as many feared — but instead assist the pipeline project.