Aramco will be ready for IPO in H2 this year: CEO

28/03/2018 05:45 AST

Saudi Aramco's chief executive officer has reiterated that the oil giant will be ready for a listing in the second-half of this year. In a Bloomberg television interview, Amin Nasser defended prospects for the initial public offering (IPO) of the company.

"There's a lot of work that is still ongoing, the IPO is ongoing," Amin Nasser said in the interview in New York. Still, he said that it's the government who will take the final decision.

"The venue and the timing is the government," he said. "Don't forget this is a very complex process. Aramco's size and complexities is something that requires time."

For almost two years, Saudi officials said again and again the IPO was "on track, on time" for the second half of 2018. But for the first time this month they suggested it could be delayed until 2019, pushing back a central plank of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plan to modernise the economy, Bloomberg said.

The Aramco IPO would be a once-in-a-generation event for financial markets. Saudi officials said they hope to raise a record $100 billion by selling a five percent stake, valuing the company at more than $2 trillion and dwarfing the $25 billion raised by Chinese Internet retailer Alibaba Group Holding in 2014.

Prince Mohammed, who has made the IPO a key part of his ambitions to ready the economy for the post-oil age, is touring the US, visiting cities from Washington to Houston. So far, American investors have given the IPO a cool response.

Yet, the Aramco CEO said he saw lots of appetite for the IPO in America and elsewhere. "I think there is a lot demand for the listing of Aramco. This is a great company," he said.

Nasser offered few clues about how Aramco will attract investors, only saying the company will be "competing" with the best in Big Oil. "In terms of dividend, rate of return, that all we'll share with investors when we go on roadshow," he said.

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