The Capital Market Company in the Kingdom “Tadawul” announced that the shares of the state-owned Arab Oil Company (Aramco) will be listed and started trading next Wednesday with the symbol 2222, provided that the daily fluctuation rate for the share price is ± 10%.
The company indicated that on the first day only for inclusion, the opening session of Aramco will be extended for an additional 30 minutes, and thus the opening auction session period starts on Wednesday and ends at 10:30 am, and the continuous trading session begins at 10:30 am, and the session begins Closing auction, as usual, at 3:00 pm.
It indicated that the opening session for the remaining securities listed in the main market will remain unchanged from 9:30 in the morning to 10:00 in the morning, as the continuous trading of the rest of the listed securities will start as usual at 10:00 in the morning.
This comes after Aramco announced that it decided to price its share in its initial public offering at 32 riyals (equivalent to about $8.5) per share, which is the upper limit of the indicative scope.
The company collected $25.6 billion from the subscription, which ended on the fourth of this month.
The company said that the institutions had subscribed for $106 billion, while retail investors subscribed for $13 billion.
Aramco relied on local and regional investors to sell a 1.5% stake, after international institutions, despite the low estimate of its value of $1.7 trillion, held back a large difference from the value sought by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which amounted to two trillion dollars.
Aramco canceled promotional tours in New York and London, focusing instead on marketing a 1.5% stake to Saudi investors and allies from the Arab Gulf states.
Saudi banks have offered citizens little interest in advance to submit offers to buy shares, and Riyadh has not disclosed anything regarding the date or place of Aramco’s listing abroad.
Families from among the wealthiest in Saudi Arabia were also paid to invest, especially Prince Al-Walid bin Talal, who was among the detainees at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh during a campaign against corruption in 2017.
Subscribing to Aramco is the cornerstone of the economic reform program of Muhammad bin Salman, known as Vision 2030.
Observers believe that the attack on Aramco in mid-September last year, led to a growing concern of global investors about the Kingdom’s ability to protect one of the most important global energy facilities.
Some investors question the possibility of their voices being heard amid the Saudi government’s dominance of the company, while others consider the value of Aramco exaggerated compared to the value of competitors such as “Exxon Mobil” and “Royal Dutch Shell” or even “Chevron”.
Karen Young, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said the initial offering relates to “making its debut in the international investor community.”
Young added that attracting foreign investment has become more difficult for the Kingdom after it reached a high degree of capital outflow in 2017.
“The atmosphere of regional political danger, Saudi foreign policy options, and the suppression of political opposition, have probably weakened investor enthusiasm,” Young added.
The Kingdom faced increasing international criticism after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, as well as for the arrest of human rights activists.
