Riyadh – Mubasher: The timing of Saudi Aramco's initial public offering (IPO) isn't critical and can be postponed to 2019 or afterwards, Saudi minister of energy, industry and mineral resources Khalid Al-Falih has said.
"It would be nice" if the IPO can be launched in 2019, Bloomberg reported, citing Al-Falih as saying in Austria during a conference for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
A 2019 date would already be considered a delay from initial reports and statements that Aramco's IPO would be done in the second half of 2018. However, Al-Falih said that the "timing isn't critical for the government of Saudi Arabia."
The widely-anticipated IPO for a 5% stake in the Saudi oil giant would reportedly generate around $100 billion, which values the company at $2 trillion.
An IPO of this magnitude would dwarf Chinese giant Alibaba's $25 billion IPO launched in September 2014 and which was described as the largest offering in US history.
"A key plank of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to reform the Saudi economy, the Aramco IPO would be a seismic event for financial markets," Bloomberg said of the IPO. The Saudi government is also looking to diversify its resources away from oil, which is where the Aramco IPO comes in.
Speaking about OPEC issues, Al-Falih stated that "Legal considerations [for oil producers] will remain an important issue to put in the mix."
In April 2016, Mohammed bin Salman started talks of what has become widely known as the Aramco IPO.
