Share sale: Saudi Aramco advisors have been in Saudi Arabia making final preparations for a secondary share offering
Saudi state oil giant Aramco is preparing a new sale of between $10bn (£7.8bn) and $20bn (£15.7bn) of its shares.
Advisers have been making final preparations for a secondary share offering and the final decision is expected to be made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The deal has attracted informal investor interest worth more than £7.8bn.
The Saudi state and its sovereign wealth fund own the vast majority of Aramco, and only 1.5 percent of the company is listed on the kingdom’s stock exchange, after its first public offering in 2019.
The sale raised a record $29.4bn (£23bn), which remains the largest initial public offering in history to date. Aramco is the world’s largest oil company, but Saudi Arabia recently recorded its sixth consecutive quarterly budget deficit and has forecast a £16.5bn shortfall for the year.