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Saudi state oil giant Aramco plans to sell between $10 billion and $20 billion of its stock as early as this week, according to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The Saudi state and its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, own the majority of Aramco. Only 1.5% of the company is publicly traded on the Tadawul, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, following its initial public offering in 2019. That IPO raised a record $29.4 billion, making it the largest in history. Aramco remains the world’s largest oil company by both daily crude production and market capitalization.
This new stock sale would be timely for Saudi Arabia, which reported its sixth consecutive quarterly budget deficit in early May due to high spending on multitrillion-dollar megaprojects and lower oil revenues.
Aramco declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.
If the sale proceeds, it would ease some of the kingdom’s financial pressures in the short term. Saudi Arabia projected a budget deficit of 79 billion riyals ($21 billion) for this year and expects fiscal deficits in 2025 and 2026. However, the stock sale could still be delayed or canceled, The Wall Street Journal reported.
