Saudi Aramco began trading shares on the Saudi Exchange in 2019.
The company’s initial public offering, or IPO, was one of the most closely watched stock-market events in history. Saudi Aramco sold shares on the Tadawul, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, in December 2019. The offering raised about $25.6 billion initially, making it the world’s largest IPO at the time.
Saudi Aramco is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and is formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company. It traces its origins to the concession granted to Standard Oil of California in 1933. The company’s ownership was gradually transferred to the Saudi government, which completed nationalization in the 1980s.
A common mix-up is confusing the 2019 Saudi listing with Aramco’s later international bond sales or with other major energy-company IPOs. The shares first became publicly tradable in Saudi Arabia in 2019, while the government retained most of the company.