Saudi Aramco IPO institutional portion oversubscribed 1.1 times so far: Source

The institutional portion of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO) is said to be 1.1 times oversubscribed so far, a banking source told Al Arabiya English on Wednesday.

Based on Al Arabiya English’s calculations, this means the IPO has received about 70.4 billion riyals ($18.77 billion) in orders for the institutional tranche, up from $17.1 billion on November 21.

The deadline to subscribe for institutional investors is December 4, while the deadline for retail investors is November 28. The process started on November 17.

The final price for the offering will be disclosed on December 5, while refunds of excess subscriptions are set to be disbursed on December 12, Saudi Aramco said in its prospectus.

Meanwhile, retail subscribers had invested 27.04 billion riyals ($7.21 billion) by Monday day-end, according to Samba Capital, the lead manager of the retail portion.

The retail tranche of the sale has attracted 3.1 million people so far, with 845,101,020 shares sold, Samba added on Monday.

Saudi Aramco is offering 1.5 percent of its shares on the Tadawul, with 0.5 percent set aside for retail, or individual investors. The remaining shares are allocated for institutional investors, such as banks or sovereign wealth funds.

The company has set an indicative price range of 30-32 riyals per share ($8-$8.53), which would value the oil giant at $1.6-$1.7 trillion. At this valuation, the company could raise as much as 96 billion riyals ($25.6 billion) in proceeds from the IPO, according to Al Arabiya English’s calculations.

When earlier contacted by Al Arabiya English, Saudi Aramco said the trading date is yet to be announced.