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Saudi Arabia is considering an IPO of Aramco, the world’s "most valuable" company

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1280px-Saudi_Aramco.svg.png
Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil behemoth could be coming to the public markets.

According to a report in The Economist, Saudi Aramco, the state-owned company that is the world's largest oil producer, could soon be listed on a public exchange. Muhammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's deputy crown prince, told The Economist a decision by the kingdom regarding an offering of Aramco would happen in the next few months.

Saudi officials say Saudi Aramco is worth "trillions of dollars," which would make it by far the largest company in the world.

Can you imagine selling shares in Saudi Aramco?
This is something that is being reviewed, and we believe a decision will be made over the next few months. Personally I’m enthusiastic about this step. I believe it is in the interest of the Saudi market, and it is in the interest of Aramco, and it is for the interest of more transparency, and to counter corruption, if any, that may be circling around Aramco.

And what will you privatise to raise revenues?
Healthcare, educational sector, some military sectors such as military industries and some state-owned companies. It will decrease some of the pressure that the government has, and some of them may create good profit.
http://www.economist.com/saudi_interview
The Economist's report added that options being considered for an Aramco public float included "listing some of its petrochemical and other 'downstream' firms, to selling shares in the parent company, which includes the core business of producing crude."

This potential market debut for the company comes amid a continued slide in the price of crude oil.

Crude hit a 14-year low on Thursday, with West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, falling as low as $32.10 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, ticked as low as $32.17.
http://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-aramco-could-look-at-ipo-economist-says-2016-1
As you know Aramco is a massive company with basically mini cities under their control...
So what do you make of this GAF.... Why now when oil is so low? (Maybe because it is so low that this option has reason to the table)
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
A treasure trove of data would come out of the financial reports of that thing

Already posted, OP: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1167500



One reason why it will never happen. At most I can see them spinning off downstream ops, but that would be regressing to the ol' days of SAMAREC and lose all the benefits of vertical integration.

Further, can you imagine doing the external audits? Where do you even begin? How reliable would it be?

The first several years you'd be working on the good faith of Saudi Arabia essentially.
 

7aged

Member
Some people here got the wrong impression. Aramco is actually a pretty well run company, comparable to most blue chips. They do have external auditors.
 
It used to be an American company. If I remember right it came from one of the Standard Oil spin offs when the monopoly got broken up.

Edit: After doing some more Wikipedia reading, it's a pretty fascinating business history. Standard Oil is/was everywhere.
 
Some people here got the wrong impression. Aramco is actually a pretty well run company, comparable to most blue chips. They do have external auditors.

the company is massive

so much so they have their own rule set for compounds which don't follow average Saudi Law

I mean a company this massive will dwarf all other energy companies if it goes public

trillions of dollars worth
 

Acorn

Member
http://www.economist.com/saudi_interview

http://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-aramco-could-look-at-ipo-economist-says-2016-1
As you know Aramco is a massive company with basically mini cities under their control...
So what do you make of this GAF.... Why now when oil is so low? (Maybe because it is so low that this option has reason to the table)
Oil is low because Saudis want to kill US and Europe fracking and renewables. They are over producing exactly for that purpose.
 

7aged

Member
It used to be an American company. If I remember right it came from one of the Standard Oil spin offs when the monopoly got broken up.

Yes, the original concessionaire was a consortium led by Socal. A proper exploitative company to start with until the Aramco riots, followed by the arrival of secular nationalist oil minister Abdullah al-Tariqi forced them to change.
They were bought out gradually by the Saudi government over a long period until 1980 when it was finally nationalised. Merged (ie took over) with the badly run SAMAREC to create an integrated company in 1994.

Now they are considered the role model company.

the company is massive

so much so they have their own rule set for compounds which don't follow average Saudi Law

I mean a company this massive will dwarf all other energy companies if it goes public

trillions of dollars worth

I know they're massive.
Regarding compounds, pretty much all of them have relaxed regulations, even the small ones. Not an Aramco thing. But they do have the unique privilege of being able to get things done without having to deal with ... .
 

ASIS

Member
It is a bad excuse for a country that is just as barbaric and backwards as ISIS. Why would anyone defend it?

The fact that you compared us to ISIS shows how you know nothing about Saudi Arabia. Mind you, a lot of the criticism is justified but this is not the thread to do so.
 

Frodo

Member
The fact that you compared us to ISIS shows how you know nothing about Saudi Arabia. Mind you, a lot of the criticism is justified but this is not the thread to do so.

Why do you use "us"? No one is saying that the Saudi Arabian people are like ISIS. The government and the monarchy and the very specific group of people decapitating people in 2016 are. The country deserves the hate it gets, but no one is saying this hate should be directed at the people who live there in general.
 

ASIS

Member
Why do you use "us"? No one is saying that the Saudi Arabian people are like ISIS. The government and the monarchy and the very specific group of people decapitating people in 2016 are. The country deserves the hate it gets, but no one is saying this hate should be directed at the people who live there in general.

Then why would you think that "getting money out of Saudi Arabia" is a good thing when it actually means that the people will be harmed at the end of the day?

As I said, this is completely not the thread to discuss such matters.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
It is a bad excuse for a country that is just as barbaric and backwards as ISIS. Why would anyone defend it?

And there we have it. The dumbest post in the thread. Yup, the entire country is ISIS. Gotcha.

Just a hunch, you never ventured outside of the US border even once, did you.
 

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
The fact that you compared us to ISIS shows how you know nothing about Saudi Arabia. Mind you, a lot of the criticism is justified but this is not the thread to do so.

Your country just executed a Shiite cleric for speaking out against your leaders, and have condemned his nephew to the same fate. Not to mention arresting the cleric's brother for tweeting about the execution. They also stone women on bullshit charges like witchcraft. Don't like your leaders being compared to psychopathic, medieval nut jobs? Do something about your nutty government. Oh wait don't do that, you live in SA after all, and protesting could mean a death sentence.
 
It has only been a day and people are already foaming at the mouth because of this

Calling it the biggest IPO in history if they decided to proceed with it or that the company simply too big to value.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...et-plan-for-saudi-arabian-sale-of-the-century

Now we also have Aramco confirming this as well
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...confirms-it-s-studying-a-potential-share-sale

they're not going to sell more then 50% of the company of course... but just 5% is 80 Billion or more
 
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