Saudi Arabia to sell second slice of shares in oil giant Aramco

The Saudi Arabian government is to sell a second sliver of stock worth billions of dollars in state oil giant Aramco.

Saudi Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, acknowledged the stock sale in a corporate disclosure online.

It put the number of shares being offered at 1.545 billion, priced at between 7.12 (£5.61) and 7.73 dollars (£6.09) a share.

At the high range of the valuation, that would make the shares worth about 11.9 billion dollars (£9.37bn). They will begin being sold on Sunday to institutional investors and on Monday to retail investors.

Aramco has a market value of 1.8 trillion dollars (£1.42tr), making it the world’s sixth most valuable company behind Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Google owner Alphabet and Amazon respectively.

Just 1.73% of the company has been traded on the Tadawul, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, since the company’s initial public offering in 2019. This additional offer represents 0.64% of all the company’s shares.

The Saudi government remains the dominant shareholder in Aramco, with shares also going towards the kingdom’s sovereign wealth funds as part of its efforts to rapidly diversify the country’s economy away from oil.

Saudi Arabia’s vast oil resources, located close to the surface of the desert, make it one of the world’s least expensive places to produce crude.

Shares in Aramco stood around 7.75 dollars (£6.12) a share in trading on Thursday. Aramco shares have lost nearly 12% of their value since the start of the year.

Aramco reported making a 121 billion dollar (£95.22bn) profit last year, down from its 2022 record due to lower energy prices.