Saudi Aramco completed its initial public offering in 2019.
The company listed shares on the Saudi Exchange, known as Tadawul, in December 2019. The offering raised about $29.4 billion, making it the largest initial public offering recorded at the time. Saudi Aramco sold 1.5% of its shares in the offering.
Saudi Aramco is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and traces its origins to an oil concession granted to Standard Oil of California in 1933. Oil was discovered commercially at Dammam Well No. 7 in 1938. The company was later progressively taken into Saudi government ownership.
The IPO year is sometimes confused with earlier plans to list the company. Saudi authorities discussed a possible offering for years before the listing occurred. The 2019 event was the completed public share sale, initially on the domestic Saudi market rather than a simultaneous global listing.