Shares of oil giant Saudi Aramco surged after the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), pushing the oil producer’s value to a record $1.88 trillion U.S. on its first day of trading.
The Saudi Aramco stock jumped the daily 10% limit to 35.20 riyals when trading began at 10:30 a.m. (2:30 A.M. EST) in Riyadh. The Saudi oil company raised $25.6 billion U.S. in the world’s biggest-ever IPO, selling shares at 32 riyals each and valuing the company at $1.7 trillion U.S.
With its share price appreciation on the first day of trading, Saudi Aramco has now overtaken Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. as the most valuable listed company on the planet. Saudi Aramco’s stock dwarfs the rest of the companies listed on the Saudi stock market, which have a combined value of about $500 billion U.S.
With the current value of Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s stock exchange now becomes the world’s ninth largest bourse, overtaking India and closing in on Germany and Canada. The previous largest IPO, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA), rose 38% in its trading debut in 2014.
People looking to get their hands-on Saudi Aramco stock should keep in mind that only sold 1.5% of the company’s capital has been publicly listed, meaning that barely any of its shares will actually trade on the stock exchange.
The Saudi Aramco IPO proceeds are to be transferred to the Public Investment Fund, which has made a number of bold investments, including into SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund and a $3.5-billion stake in Uber Technologies Inc.
