Saudi Aramco IPO attracts 73 billion riyals in first five days of the offering

Some 1.8 million retail subscribers have injected more than 14bn riyals into the IPO

Saudi Aramco's initial public offering has attracted approximately 73 billion riyals in institutional and retail orders so far. Reuters

Saudi Aramco's initial public offering (IPO) has attracted approximately 73 billion Saudi riyals (Dh71.49bn) in institutional and retail orders so far, Saudi Arabia's Samba Financial Group said on Thursday.

About 1.8 million retail subscribers have injected more than 14bn riyals into the IPO so far, said Samba, one of the banks managing the listing.

Institutional subscriptions amounted to 58.4bn riyals and 1.82bn subscribed shares, it added.

"Retail and Institutional subscription levels for the first five days of the offering have reached an unprecedented scale, demonstrating the confidence of investors in Saudi Aramco," said Rania Nashar, vice chairman of Samba Capital, the investment arm of the bank.

"We anticipate further increases in subscription levels during the remainder of the offering period."

A banking source said earlier that the institutional tranche of the IPO was oversubscribed. However, the preliminary estimates do not show that it is oversubscribed.

"Receiving banks send their statistics by the end of the day, some are late for technical or bureaucratic reasons, that is what makes the different figures," the source said.

"The order book shows very good signs the IPO will be oversubscribed."

Aramco plans to sell 1.5 per cent of the company, or about three billion shares, at an indicative price range of 30 riyals to 32 riyals, valuing the IPO at as much as 96bn riyals and giving the company a potential market value of between $1.6 trillion and $1.7tn (Dh5.9tn to Dh6.2tn).

Representatives of the state-owned oil giant plan meetings with investors in Dubai next week, sources have said, for what is expected to be the world's biggest share sale.

Aramco has said at least one-third of the sale is expected to be covered by retail investors, who have until November 28 to sign up for the IPO.

Institutional investors can subscribe until December 4.