Saudi oil company Aramco is considering floating the shares of its subsidiary Aramco Trading Company on the stock exchange, Bloomberg reported.Â
According to informed sources, the initial public offering (IPO) could be the world’s largest this year, given the spike in international oil prices.
The sources point out that the state-owned company is working with a number of investment firms, including Goldman Sachs Group, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, to look into the possibility of issuing the shares of its trading unit.
The value of Aramco Trading might be worth $30 billion, the sources said. Aramco, which has become the world’s largest listed company by market value, is expected to sell 30 percent of Aramco Trading shares.
The Saudi Arabian Oil Company said on Monday that its shareholders had agreed to expand the company’s capital by 25 percent through the issuance of bonus shares.
The company stated that after the increase, its capital will be 75 billion riyals (roughly $20 billion), up from 60 billion riyals before the expansion, with the number of shares increasing from 200 to 220 billion.
