Saudi Aramco’s IPO balloons to record $29.4B

By: Noah M.

Saudi Aramco has boosted the size of its initial public offering by nearly $4 billion after selling millions of additional shares.

Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil giant said Sunday that it’s raised a record $29.4 billion after exercising a “greenshoe option” to sell 450 million more shares than originally planned. The option allowed the company to issue more shares to meet demand from investors.

The extra shares “had been allocated to investors during the book-building process and therefore, no additional shares are being offered into the market today,” Aramco said.

Aramco initially raised $25.6 billion last month when it offered 3 billion shares worth 1.5 percent of the company. That number itself eclipsed the $25 billion record set in 2014 by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Aramco’s share price quickly spiked in its first two days of trading on Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock exchange to give it the $2 trillion valuation sought by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

But the stock has taken a hit in recent weeks amid mounting tensions in the Middle East. Aramco shares hit a low of 34 riyals, or $9.06, on Jan. 8 as markets grappled with the Jan. 3 US airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Aramco’s stock price traded down Sunday to about 34.7 riyals a share, or $9.25. Aramco’s market cap of about $1.85 trillion makes it the world’s most valuable company ahead of tech giant Apple at about $1.3 trillion.