Aramco IPO Venue in the Balance as Saudi Prince Embarks on Trip

Reuters ^ | 3/6 | Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler, Yara Bayoumy2

[nickcarraway]

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s upcoming trip to Britain and the United States could shape the decision on where to list oil giant Aramco, at a time when sources say the chances of London and New York hosting the IPO appear to be receding.

The two leading financial centers have long been the clear frontrunners to host the international leg of the flotation, alongside a Riyadh listing.

Yet this may no longer be the case as Hong Kong is emerging as an increasingly likely compromise because Riyadh wants to help Asian nations that are expected to become “cornerstone” investors, including China and Japan, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

[nickcarraway]

Aramco = Arabian-American Oil Company

[WayneS]

Interesting. The Arabian American Oil Company is most likely going to be headquartered in Hong Kong... How logical.

[bert]

No, not by a longshot.

The company is actually now named Saudi Aramco. ARAMCO and Arabian American Oil Company were abandoned some time ago.

What is being sought is a financial center, a stock market, for the initial offering and place for trading the new stock.

The head quarters is in Dhahran, in a building that I had a very major part of building.

[nickcarraway]

If it is listed in Hong Kong, it’s could be a major stop on the road to the petroYuan.

[bert]

I take your point but.....

Chicaps and Saudicaps can make a formidable team. Hong Kong is not Shanghai

The future is in Asia. America can be taken as mature and the UK/Europe as dead. The object is to get the absolutely bet price for the stock being sold as possible.

I sincerely doubt the Saudicaps will allow control to slip from the Kingdom

[nickcarraway]

Perhaps not. But sometimes when you go public there are unintended consequences.

[353FMG]

There is a Saudi-Aramco building in Houston, TX.

[Gay State Conservative]

Wherever it goes our goal should be to make the Saudis...Iranians...Venezuelans,etc minor players in the world oil market.We do that by producing every drop of oil we can.Alaska...the East Coast...the West Coast...the Dakotas...EVERYWHERE!

[bert]

There always has been. For years it was Aramco Services and my very best customer

[AdmSmith]

It is very unlikely that they would be listed in the US as then they have to disclose their oil reserves and being transparent in payments (both a no-no for the KSA). In the case that KSA is sued for anything it is not unlikely that shares would be blocked or worse for them.

Furthermore the company is too big to be handled properly. I anticipate that a possible listing will be postponed to 2019 and that ARAMCO would be divided in several companies and just one of these will be listed. But, will it be listed in HK?