UK finance minister Hammond visiting Saudi Arabia to strengthen business ties

British finance minister Philip Hammond will visit Saudi Arabia to promote bilateral business ties, accompanied by London Stock Exchange chief David Schwimmer as Saudi oil giant Aramco revisits a possible listing.

Hammond is travelling to Jeddah on Saturday for the first Economic and Social Pillar meeting of the UK-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council.

He will also be joined by Graham Stuart, the Minister for Investment, and Ken Costa, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Vision 2030.

Hammond will have a series of meetings with political and business leaders in Saudi Arabia as part of the British government’s support for economic and social reforms in the Kingdom, his ministry said in a statement.

Investment banks are scrambling to re-pitch to advise Saudi Aramco, given that it expects a domestic and international initial public offering (IPO) to take place in 2020 or early 2021.

Last year, Britain brought in new premium listing rules aimed at attracting companies like state-controlled Aramco to London.

Saudi Aramco hopes to raise $100 billion from its IPO.

(With Reuters)