MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering is on track for next year and the national oil giant could be valued at more than USD2 trillion, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman told Reuters in an interview.
The sale of around 5% of Aramco next year is a centrepiece of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil which is championed by Prince Mohammad.
Saudi officials have said domestic and international exchanges such as New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong have been looked at for a partial listing of the state-run firm.
A decision on which exchange would secure the offering has still not been made, fuelling market speculation that the IPO could be delayed beyond 2018 or even shelved, amid growing concerns about the feasibility of an international listing.
"We are on track in 2018... but the listing (details) are still under discussion," Prince Mohammad told Reuters in an interview. "It will be IPO-ed in 2018."
The crown prince declined to discuss specific details of the IPO, which could be the biggest in history and is expected to raise as much as USD100 billion.
As MRC reported earlier, in June 2016, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. became one step closer to building their first plant to process crude directly into chemicals, cutting out a link in the production chain from hydrocarbons to the finished products that go into plastics and other consumer goods. The state-owned companies signed an agreement to study such a project to be located in Saudi Arabia. A joint venture is possible if the companies decide to move ahead after the study is completed. Oil companies normally refine crude into transportation fuels including gasoline and diesel and leave byproducts such as naphtha to be processed separately into chemicals.
Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
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