Aramco to reveal IPO price range on November 17

Final offer price is expected to be announced on December 5

An employee looks out across oil pipes operated by Saudi Aramco, in Ras Tanura. The company will set a price range for its initial public offering next week. Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, will reveal the price range for its initial public offering on the kingdom's stock exchange next week, providing insight to the overall valuation of the company.

"Individual investors will subscribe based on a set price which will be the highest end of the price range to be announced ... on 17 November, 2019," the company said on Tuesday. The subscription period for individual investors will run from November 17 until November 28. A final price for its offer will be determined and announced on December 5.

Aramco published its 658-page prospectus on Sunday morning, in which it revealed up to 0.5 per cent of the company's shares will be offered to retail investors. The document did specify how much of the company will be offered to institutional investors through its domestic listing. A dual listing of its shares on an international exchange could follow at a later date.

Aramco is the largest integrated oil and gas company in the world, producing one in every eight barrels of crude oil. In 2018, the company produced 13.6 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, including 10.3 million bpd of crude.

Documents filed for a bond prospectus earlier this year revealed that it is the most profitable company in the world, making $111.1bn on revenue of $355.9bn last year.

For the first nine months of the year, Aramco recorded a net profit of $68bn.

“The Saudi Aramco initial public offering will provide Arabian Gulf markets with significant momentum and attract global institutional investors to the region," Ryan Lemand, senior executive officer at asset management company ADS Investment Solutions, said after the publication of its prospectus on Sunday.

Following the listing, Aramco plans to pay a dividend on $13.4bn for the quarter ending September 30 and will declare an interim dividend of a maximum $9.5bn pending board approval, the company said.

Aramco's IPO is central to Riyadh's ambitions to transform the kingdom's economy. Funds from the share float are expected to boost spending on Vision 2030 realisation projects such as the $500bn futuristic economic free zone Neom and the Red Sea Project, a mega-tourism attraction, as the country opens up its tourism and entertainment sector.