Riyadh - Mubasher: China is offering to buy up to 5% of Saudi Aramco directly, Reuters reported citing sources familiar with the matter.
Such a move could give Saudi Arabia the flexibility to consider various options for its plan to offer a stake in the world’s biggest oil company on the stock market, with the Chinese wanting to secure oil supplies.
According to the news agency, Chinese state-owned oil companies PetroChina and Sinopec have written to Saudi Aramco in recent weeks to express an interest in a direct deal, however, both companies have declined to comment.
The companies are part of a state-run consortium including China’s sovereign wealth fund, the sources say.
On Thursday, the Financial Times cited informed sources as saying that Aramco was considering abandoning launching the IPO on a global stock exchange and doing a private offering for the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors.
Last month, Saudi minister of finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan said that Aramco’s highly anticipated IPO was to be implemented according to plan in 2018.
Aramco has previously posted that the listing is proceeding “on track” after a report the oil company was mapping out contingency plans for a possible adjournment into 2019.
In April 2016, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman stated that Aramco’s IPO would take place in 2017, but may be postponed to 2018.
