Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering was valued at $29.4 billion in December 2019, making it the world’s largest IPO at the time.
The offering sold 1.5% of the company on the Saudi Stock Exchange, known as Tadawul. The base offering raised about $25.6 billion, while an overallotment option increased the final amount to $29.4 billion. This distinction explains why both figures sometimes appear in summaries.
Saudi Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company and one of the world’s largest petroleum producers. Its listing briefly gave it a market value of about $2 trillion, although its share price later moved below that level. China’s Alibaba had previously held the IPO record after its 2014 New York listing.