Aramco’s ‘greenshoe option’ pushes IPO to record $29.4 billion

The oil and gas company, which is majority owned by the state, began publicly trading on the local Saudi Tadawul exchange on December 11. (AP photo)

Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco announced Sunday that its initial public offering raised a record USD 29.4 billion, a figure higher than previously announced, after the company used a so-called “greenshoe option” to sell millions more shares to meet investor demand.

The company said that the sale of an additional 450 million shares took place during the initial public offering process. The oil and gas company, which is majority owned by the state, began publicly trading on the local Saudi Tadawul exchange on December 11.

It hit upwards of USD 10 a share on the second day of trading. This gave Aramco a market capitalization of USD 2 trillion, making it comfortably the world’s most valuable company. Aramco’s additional sales mean the company has publicly floated 1.7 per cent of its shares.

It’s IPO, even before the added sales, was the world’s largest ever. The shares sold in the over-allotment option “had been allocated to investors during the bookbuilding process and therefore, no additional shares are being offered into the market today,” Aramco said.

Company shares traded down on Sunday, dipping to around 34.7 riyals, or USD 9.25 a share, amid heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf between Iran and the United States.
Aramco was a target of rising tensions over the summer when a missile and drone attack, which Saudi

Arabia and the US blame on Iran, temporarily halved its production. Sunday’s trading figures value Aramco at USD 1.85 trillion, still well ahead of Apple, the second largest company in the world after Aramco, but below the USD 2 trillion mark sought by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.