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Aramco's Luberef gets regulator nod for IPO

November 26, 2022 00:00:00


DUBAI, Nov 25 (Reuters): Saudi oil giant Aramco's base oil subsidiary, Luberef, has received the approval from the kingdom's stock market regulator for an initial public offering, the Capital Market Authority said on Thursday.

Saudi Aramco Base Oil Company (Luberef), formerly Saudi Aramco Lubricating Oil Refining Co, will offer investors 50.045 million of its shares, equivalent to 29.656 per cent of its share capital.

Aramco owns 70 per cent of Luberef and Saudi

investment bank Jadwa Investment owns the remaining

30 per cent.

The Gulf region in general and Saudi Arabia, in particular, has seen a slew of IPOs over the past year, as oil prices have remained high and as several state-owned behemoths as well as sovereign wealth funds look to diversify their holdings away from oil and gas and into other new-age economy businesses.

Three stock exchanges -- the Saudi Tadawul, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market -- have accounted for a bulk of the $16 billion that Gulf-based companies have raised via listings so far in 2022. This is half the amount that companies throughout Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have raised from IPOs this year.

Saudi Aramco's record listing on Riyadh's Tadawul exchange in late 2019, later boosted to total $29.4 billion in proceeds, was the world's largest IPO.

Aramco is also planning an IPO of its energy-trading business.

The kingdom's privatisation programme is a cornerstone of its Vision 2030 economic agenda to wean the economy off oil, build new industries and create jobs.


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