Aramco IPO to make global impact, say regional money managers - The National

Aramco IPO to make global impact, say regional money managers - The National:

"Money managers in the Middle East are confident the stake sale of government-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co, known as Aramco, this year will shake up the global stock market with a record initial public offering that gives the world’s biggest company a valuation of about $1.5 trillion. “People focus on Aramco as being the key thing,” said Salman Bajwa, chief executive officer of Dubai-based Emirates NBD Asset Management, which has $4.8 billion of assets. “In our eyes, it is just one of the several major changes taking place. We have landmark reforms going in the social, economic and markets space. The Aramco IPO will be the confirmation that one phase of structural reforms in the markets space has been successfully completed” because “there are going to be other IPOs, many of state-owned entities,” Mr Baja said. The market capitalisation of Aramco will be almost twice that of Apple, four times bigger than Exxon Mobil and at least one-fifth of the $5.8tn MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the benchmark for emerging markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, Saudi Arabia plans to create the largest sovereign wealth fund and sell hundreds of state assets, including stakes in the stock exchange, football clubs and flour mills. Aramco is ready for its IPO in the second half, the chief executive officer Amin Nasser said last week."



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