Saudi Aramco’s IPO receives 73 bln riyals in orders so far: Samba CEO

Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO) has received about 73 billion riyals ($19.47 billion) in orders, Rania Nashar, chief executive officer of Riyadh-based Samba Financial Group, told Al Arabiya TV on Thursday.

Nashar said that around 1.8 million retail investors have placed orders worth approximately 14 billion riyals into the IPO so far. As for the institutional tranche of the IPO, subscribers have so far invested more than 58 billion riyals, Nashar added.

Aramco is offering 1.5 percent of its shares on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). Retail investors will be able to subscribe to 0.5 percent of this amount, while the remaining 1 percent is allocated to institutional investors, such as banks or sovereign wealth funds.

The IPO is open to Saudi Arabian investors, as well as qualified foreign investors (QFIs) in the Kingdom.

The initial offering price for the IPO has been set at 30-32 riyals ($8-8.53), with the final price set to be announced on December 5. This share price would value the oil giant at $1.6 to $1.7 trillion.

At this valuation, the company could raise $24-25.5 billion from the IPO, according to Al Arabiya English’s calculations.