Saudi Aramco held the largest initial public offering in history when it went public in 2019.
Saudi Aramco’s shares began trading on the Saudi Stock Exchange in December 2019. The offering raised approximately $25.6 billion initially, and an overallotment option later increased the total to about $29.4 billion. That result surpassed Alibaba’s 2014 New York listing, which had raised roughly $25 billion.
The IPO sold a relatively small percentage of Saudi Aramco compared with the company’s total value. Most shares remained owned by the Saudi Arabian government. The listing gave public investors access to part of one of the world’s largest petroleum businesses while also supporting Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification plans.
IPO size and market capitalization are different measures. The IPO figure is the money raised by selling shares, while market capitalization is the value of all shares at the current market price. Saudi Aramco’s enormous valuation and the scale of its oil reserves made the offering unusually important to global markets.