MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco has added Goldman Sachs as a bookrunner for a planned bond which will help finance its purchase of a stake in Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The US investment bank flew out a team of senior executives including partner Dina Powell, a veteran of the administration of US President Donald Trump, to pitch for the deal, the sources said.
Saudi Aramco did not respond to queries for immediate comment. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
The state oil giant had already picked a group of banks including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, HSBC and Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank to help with the financing, Reuters reported on Feb. 14. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley were appointed joint global coordinators and, together with the other banks, joint bookrunners.
Aramco, the world’s top oil producer, plans to issue its first international bonds, likely worth about USD10 billion, in the second quarter of 2019, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said last month.
Sources previously told Reuters it could borrow as much as USD50 billion from international investors to fund the purchase of all, or nearly all, of the 70 percent stake in SABIC held by the Public Investment Fund, the kingdom’s top sovereign wealth fund.
Goldman Sachs has won a slew of mandates in the kingdom recently, including one to advise Riyad bank on merger talks with National Commercial Bank.
It also advised Abu Dhabi’s state oil firm ADNOC on the sale of a stake in its refining unit.
As MRC reported before, a proposed reshuffle of state assets would allow Saudi Arabia to delay the listing of national oil giant Aramco until 2020 or beyond while still spending on economic development projects. In the second half of July 2018, Aramco confirmed a Reuters report that it was working on a possible purchase of a "strategic stake" in local petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s top sovereign wealth fund.
Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
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