Aramco IPO retail subscription oversubscribed, $10.16 billion in orders: Samba

Retail subscriptions to Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO) reached 38.1 billion riyals ($10.16 billion) as of midday Thursday, according to Samba Capital, the IPO’s lead manager.

Aramco is offering 1.5 percent of the company’s shares on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) at an indicative price range of 30-32 riyals ($8-$8.53). A third of those shares, 0.5 percent, is allocated to retail, or individual investors. Midnight Thursday is the final deadline for investment in the retail tranche.

At the higher end of this price range, Aramco’s retail portion is nearly 1.2 times oversubscribed, according to Al Arabiya English’s calculations.

Samba added that the sale had attracted 4.1 million individual investors so far.

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The higher end of the share price would raise as much as $25.6 billion from the IPO, putting the market value of the oil giant between $1.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion, below the government’s anticipated value of $2 trillion.

Banks in Saudi Arabia have been directed to lend to retail customers at a ratio of 2 to 1 for every riyal invested towards buying Aramco’s shares.

Aramco is expected to announce the final price for the offering on December 5.