REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
- Saudi Aramco officially kicked off its IPO on Sunday, saying that that it plans to list its shares in Riyadh.
- The IPO has been long-awaited, with Saudi officials valuing the company at $2 trillion.
- Bloomberg, citing analysis that banks are sending to potential investors, said valuations vary wildly, with Bank of America putting its low case valuation as low as $1.22 trillion.
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Saudi Aramco officially kicked off its long-awaited IPO on Sunday, and Saudi officials have valued the oil-giant at up to $2 trillion, which would be the the largest IPO on record.
However, several banks are putting their estimates much lower than that, with some valuations nearly $800 billion less than the $2 trillion figure.
According to analysis sent to potential investors seen by Bloomberg, banks involved in the listing are finding it hard to pinpoint a value for Saudi Aramco. Bank of America’s valuation, for example, ranges from $1.22 trillion to $2.27 trillion.
Bloomberg noted that the $1 trillion gap in value would be able to fit the combined market capitalizations of Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Shell combined.
Goldman Sachs valued Aramco at $1.6 trillion to $2.3 trillion, with Bloomberg citing the bank as saying to investors that “our suggested valuation framework is based on a long-term analysis and it is not linked to a near-term assessment of the likely performance of the company’s shares.”
HSBC put the value between $1.59 trillion and $2.1 trillion, according to Bloomberg, while French bank BNP Paribas gave an incredibly specific figure of $1.424394 trillion.
Saudi Aramco on Sunday said that it would be listing shares on the Arabian Tadawul All Exchange based in Riyadh. The most profitable company in the world didn’t say how much of its shares will list initially, although reports from Reuters last week put it at 1% to 2%. It is due, however, to release a detailed prospectus on November 9, according to Bloomberg.
