Saudi Aramco Share Sale Draws Buyers in Droves

The sale of 1.5 billion shares in Saudi Aramco, which launched on Sunday, has drawn demand that exceeded the supply of stock, Reuters has reported, noting demand overtook supply just hours after the sale began.

The news of the secondary stock offering broke last week when the government of Saudi Arabia announced it would sell 1.545 billion shares in Aramco, at a price of between 26.70 and 29 riyals apiece.

To cover potential short positions resulting from any over-allotments, the government has granted Merrill Lynch, which acted as the stabilizing manager of the offering an option, known as a "greenshoe," to purchase up to 10% of the number of offered shares at the final offer price.

The banks involved in the share sale will continue taking orders from institutional buyers until Thursday, Reuters reported, after which, on Friday, they will announce the final price of the stock sale.

If demand continues as strong, that price is going to be in the upper end of the announced range. That would mean some $12 billion in proceeds unless the banks managing the offering do not add more stock to it. In that case, per Reuters, the total proceeds from the offering could reach $13.1 billion.

However, skeptics note that even the maximum proceeds from the secondary offering would fail to go a very long way towards fulfilling the Kingdom’s Visions 2030—a comprehensive economic diversification scheme spearheaded by the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed.

The Vision 2030 program has a price tag of about a trillion, compared to which the $13.1 billion that could be raised from the share sale indeed looks like a small change. The diversification challenge for Saudi Arabia becomes even more marked in the context of OPEC+’s latest meeting that yielded a decision to extend production cuts. Despite this decision, oil prices slid lower, compromising the cartel’s effort to put a floor under benchmarks.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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