Riyadh – Mubasher: Mohammed Al Jadaan, chairman of the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA), said that the initial public offering (IPO) of Aramco will be huge.
It is improbable that local demand will be able to cover the IPO, which will create a need for external demand, he stated.
The company will be listed in the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) but it is not yet decided whether or not it will be listed in any other markets, Al Jadaan added in an interview with Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published on the CMA website.
Moreover, Aramco will attract the attention to the Saudi market and consequently to the listed companies, he noted.
It is not likely that the local market will achieve the required liquidity for what could be one of the biggest IPOs in the world, the CMA chairman told the newspaper.
The Aramco IPO is an important step in the Saudi Vision 2030 that targets developing non-oil sectors and attracting foreign investments.
The Saudi government has not yet decided the Aramco stake that will be sold to the public, the top official added.
“Possibly we will implement it well ahead of what we said, in June 2017. It might be in this year,” Al-Jadaan told WSJ.
