SAUDI Arabia is in talks to add top Wall Street banks for a secondary share sale in oil giant Aramco, as it pushes ahead with one of the largest stock offerings in recent years, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The kingdom plans to hire JPMorgan as one of the main underwriters to the offering, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are also contending for lead roles on the deal, which could raise as much as US$20 billion, according to the people.
It has already lined up Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and HSBC Holdings to work on the offering, Bloomberg News reported last month. Boutique bank Moelis has been acting as a financial adviser to help pick underwriters for the deal, according to the people.
The final lineup of advisers may still change and more banks are expected to be added before the deal launches, the people said. No final decisions have been made on the timing of the sale or the number of shares the government will offer.
It’s likely to be a marketed offering that’s open for a few days for investors to submit their orders, similar to the structure adopted by the Public Investment Fund for its US$3.2 billion stake sale in Saudi Telecom in 2022, the people said.
Representatives for Aramco, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Moelis and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
A follow-on offer would come four years after Saudi Arabia raised about US$30 billion in Aramco’s IPO, which was the world’s largest ever stock sale. Some of these Wall Street banks also worked on that offering, when they were paid relatively minuscule fees compared with their work on other listings.
Proceeds from a new offering could help fund big initiatives by Crown Prince Mohammed Salman to diversify the economy away from oil.
Aramco, which has a market value of US$2 trillion, raised its dividend payout to US$31 billion this month despite a retreat in energy prices and lower production. That came days after Saudi Arabia’s government transferred a further US$164 billion stake in the oil giant to the PIF. BLOOMBERG
