2023-05-11 11:25:50
The planned offering was expected to be among the largest in the world for this year
“Bloomberg” agency quoted informed sources as saying that Saudi Aramco will postpone a huge initial public offering of the energy trading unit. A deal that would have been ranked as one of the largest stock offerings in the world this year.
The sources said that the giant oil company has significantly slowed down the preparations for the deal in recent months, according to what was seen by Al Arabiya.net. One of the people said he did not set a new timeline for the listing, which might be pushed back until next year unless the market improves.
Bloomberg reported earlier that Aramco was planning to list the company in late 2022 or early this year and was considering seeking a valuation of more than $30 billion. The sources said that it is difficult to list such large businesses on the Riyadh Stock Exchange at the present time.
The sources added that Aramco is seeking to gain more time to complete the integration of its main trading unit with the commercial arm of the US refining business, Motiva Enterprises, before proceeding with the IPO.
Saudi Arabia, usually one of the largest and busiest listing markets in the Gulf, has been very quiet this year amid concerns regarding global economic growth, while other stock exchanges such as Abu Dhabi have stepped into the spotlight. Initial offerings on the Tadawul market have raised just $72 million so far this year, the lowest since 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This compares with the $4 billion raised by stock offerings in Riyadh last year.
Aramco is working with banks including Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley for the potential IPO of its energy trading unit.
Recently, profits from trading in oil, gas and refined fuels have increased. BP, Shell and Total Energies together generated $37 billion in income for their businesses last year.
However, very few energy traders are listed, and major oil companies do not disclose much information regarding their trading units.
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