Saudi Oil Is Going Public – Biggest IPO in History

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The Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, with an estimated value of over $2 trillion, is going public.

The exact value of the nationally-owned company has never been officially provided by Saudi Arabia, but because of the upcoming partial privatization — a move to prepare the country for a post-oil era — the book value might soon be public.

Oil revenue, which accounts for 90 percent of Saudi Arabia’s export earnings, and half its GDP, has decreased in recent years, and this decrease has resulted in an almost $200 billion budget shortfall.

Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia plans to sell “less than 5 percent” of Aramco, and begin a phase of investment-generated earning.

That 5 percent equates to around $100 billion — the largest public offering in history, much larger than Alibaba, which has held the record since 2014 for its $25 billion IPO.