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According to Bloomberg, Saudi Aramco's secondary offering attracted orders exceeding $12 billion within hours of the IPO's launch. Shortly after the commencement of the institutional book-building period today, all shares offered for sale were covered.
Aramco has added four more banks to manage this secondary share offering. Advisors began receiving orders on Sunday for the offering, which could ultimately raise up to $13.1 billion.
This secondary offering comes four and a half years after the company's initial public offering (IPO). During this time, Aramco has increased its dividends and introduced a new performance-linked distribution mechanism last year despite reduced earnings due to production cuts.
Saudi Arabia will initially offer investors 0.64% of Aramco shares, approximately 1.545 billion shares, priced between 26.7 and 29 riyals ($7.12 - $7.73) per share, slightly below the upper end of the price range, valuing the offered shares at around $12 billion. Subsequently, the "over-allotment option" may be exercised to offer approximately 1.7 billion shares, or 0.7% of Aramco shares, to raise an additional $1 billion.
Aramco exercised the over-allotment option following its initial public offering in late 2019, which remains the largest in the world. Approximately 10% of the new offering, excluding the over-allotment option, will be allocated to individual investors based on demand.