Selling Aramco: The Wall Street A-Listers on Oil Giant’s IPO - Bloomberg

Selling Aramco: The Wall Street A-Listers on Oil Giant’s IPO - Bloomberg:

Saudi Aramco has enlisted the help of a former Donald Trump national security adviser and an ex-House of Representatives majority leader to pull off the world’s biggest IPO.

One-time Trump staffer Dina Powell, a partner at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Moelis & Co. Vice Chairman Eric Cantor are among scores of Wall Street veterans hired to sell shares in the kingdom’s state oil firm. The roster of bankers reads like a who’s who of finance, underscoring the importance of Saudi Arabia a year after the murder of government critic Jamal Khashoggi prompted a brief spell of skittishness over doing business with the country.

At the end of the month, many of Aramco’s bankers are expected to converge at the Future Investment Initiative -- an annual jamboree to showcase the kingdom’s aspirations that’s been dubbed Davos in the Desert. The Saudi government is set to give the official green light for the IPO at a meeting on Thursday, aiming to raise about $40 billion for the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, and a formal announcement is expected to follow on