Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia said Friday it will sell a second slice of shares in state oil giant Aramco worth billions of dollars, the first tranche since its initial public offering in 2019.
Saudi Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., acknowledged the share sale in an online disclosure. It estimated the number of shares offered at 1.545 billion, priced between $7.12 and $7.73 per share.
At the high valuation level, the shares would be worth about $11.9 billion. They will be sold to institutional investors from Sunday and to private investors from Monday.
Aramco has a market value of $1.8 trillion, making it the sixth most valuable company in the world, behind Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Google owner Alphabet and Amazon respectively.
Only 1.73% of the company, a tiny sliver, has traded on the Tadawul, Saudi Arabia's stock exchange, since the company's initial public offering in 2019. This additional offer represents 0.64% of all shares of the company.
The Saudi government remains Aramco's dominant shareholder, with shares also going to the kingdom's sovereign wealth funds as part of its efforts to quickly diversify the country's economy away from oil.
Saudi Arabia's vast oil reserves, located close to the surface of its vast desert, make it one of the least expensive places in the world to produce crude oil.
Shares in Aramco were trading around $7.75 per share on Thursday. Aramco shares have lost almost 12% of their value since the beginning of the year.
Aramco reported a profit of $121 billion last year, down from 2022's record due to lower energy prices.
