Saudi Aramco has raised a record $25.6bn in its initial public offering, capping a fraught journey to the public markets for the world’s largest oil company.
The money raised by the state-owned producer breaks the record set by Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba in 2014, but gives the company a valuation that falls short of the $2tn coveted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The IPO is at the heart of Prince Mohammed’s ambitions to transform an economy still dependent on oil at a time when the global shift to cleaner fuels is accelerating. But in the almost four years since the government first disclosed its plans for the flotation, hopes for a foreign listing have fallen by the wayside and the offering in Riyadh will be smaller than originally intended.