INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Saudi Aramco pledged to pay $75 billion in dividends in 2020New York: Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco launched its initial stock
offering (IPO) on Thursday, pricing at the high end of the target range and raising $25.6 billion, two sources told news agency AFP.That sum
raised by the oil giant surpasses the $25 billion raised by the Chinese online trading group Alibaba when it debuted on Wall Street in
2014.The market launch also puts the Saudi oil behemoth's value at $1.7 trillion, far ahead of other corporate giants in the trillion-dollar
club: Apple ($1.2 trillion), Microsoft and Alibaba ($1.1 trillion).However, it fell short of the $2 trillion mark the kingdom's ruler Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman was aiming for.Aramco will begin trading three billion shares on the country's Tadawul stock exchange December 12
at a starting price of 32 riyals ($8.53), the sources said.That price is at the top of the range set last month, even though the banks
advising the company called on Saudi authorities to be cautious to avoid volatile price swings in the first days of trading.The official
price announcement is expected later Thursday on the offering covering just 1.5 per cent of Aramco's capital.The new private shareholders
are mostly Saudis, as investors in London and New York have remained more skeptical due to questions about the firm's transparency,
governance practices and targeted valuation, as well as the ability of the group to protect its oil facilities and remain profitable in the
face of tougher environmental policies around the world.Last week, the company announced that retail subscriptions, ending November 28, had
reached about 11.5 billion euros, with nearly five million subscribers and nearly 1.5 billion shares sold -- exceeding their target of one
billion.The government used a series of initiatives to encourage Saudis to buy a stake in the kingdom's crown jewel, including offers of
bank loans and nationalist rhetoric portraying the investment a patriotic duty.Aramco has also provided local investors with promises of
higher dividends and the opportunity to obtain additional free shares if they hold their shares for some time.It pledged to pay $75 billion
in dividends in 2020.Some of the wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia have been obliged to invest, including billionaire prince Al-Waleed bin
Talal, who was among the businessmen locked up in Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton Hotel during an "anti-corruption" crackdown in 2017.Aramco put off
but has not abandoned its plan to raise additional funds by selling shares on a major international market like New York, but that will
depend on the reception it will have on the local stock exchange.The company is considered the pillar of the kingdom's economic and social
stability, and produces about 10 per cent of the world's oil, so investors are betting on the continued rise in oil prices.Prince Mohammed
has viewed the stock offering as a critical component of "Vision 2030," a program to diversify the Saudi economy and shift Aramco from "an
oil producing company into a global industrial conglomerate," according to the Saudi government website.So the kingdom has a major stake in
seeing global oil prices rise, which could be helped by a new agreement to cut production among the 14 member countries of the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as well as their 10 allies.OPEC is conducting delicate discussions on Thursday and Friday in
Vienna regarding the production agreement and any further cuts.
