MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, is expected to file its IPO prospectus by the end of the month, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The prospectus will reportedly first be published in Arabic on Oct. 25 and then in English two days later, according to a timeline seen by the Journal.
The state-owned oil enterprise will list its shares on Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul exchange, as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic reform plan. The crown prince anticipates listing 5% of the company in total domestically and internationally by 2020 or 2021. If the Saudi government decides to move forward with the listing, 1% to 2% of Aramco’s shares will be listed domestically by late November or early December, people familiar with the matter said.
The crown prince has indicated that he wants a valuation of USD2 trillion, though analysts and Aramco officials have valued Aramco at closer to USD1.5 trillion.
The Aramco IPO was delayed in 2018, reportedly over Saudi officials’ concerns about public scrutiny of the company’s finances. A drone and missile strike in September temporarily knocked out more than half of Saudi Arabia’s oil output, though officials stressed at the time that the Aramco IPO scheduling was not impacted.
As MRC informed earlier, in the early October, Saudi Aramco restored full oil production and capacity to the levels they were at before attacks on its facilities on Sept. 14.
As MRC reported before, a number of Saudi Arabia's companies, such as Tasnee, Sadara, Advanced Petrochemical and Saudi Kayan, announced a curtailment of feedstock to their petrochemical plants, including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) facilities, by an average of 30-50% due to the attacks on key Saudi Aramco facilities on Saturday.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
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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