DAVOS: The head of Saudi Aramco has laid out a roadmap leading to the sale of shares in the world’s biggest oil company in 2021.
“It’s going to happen,” president and chief executive Amin Nasser told Arab News. “There is no doubt the commitment is there, and it was also further confirmed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and by the Minister of Energy Khalid Al-Falih.”
The initial public offering — potentially the biggest stock-market flotation in history — will require careful coordination over the next two years, he said.
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FULL ARAB NEWS INTERVIEW WITH AMIN NASSER HERE
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The first stage is to complete the acquisition of SABIC, the Kingdom’s industrial giant, to transform Aramco into a major player in the global petrochemicals industry.
“That will take almost until the end of 2019, or maybe a little bit more; we don’t know because you need approval from a lot of countries where SABIC has major operations,” Nasser said.
“After that you need a minimum of one year to … show what is the impact on our balance sheet — because the investors will want to see. Then you can go to the market.”
Aramco is also considering a major acquisition in the global gas industry, with potential targets in the US, Russia and Australia, Nasser revealed.
“The team is identifying opportunities and we’re at the stage of reviewing them in detail before we announce anything.”
