Saudi Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil producer and had the world’s largest IPO in 2019.
The company is formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company. Its origins trace to the 1933 oil concession granted to Standard Oil of California, followed by the discovery of commercial oil at Dammam Well No. 7 in 1938. Saudi Arabia gradually increased its ownership before taking full control in 1980.
Saudi Aramco listed shares on the Saudi Exchange in December 2019. The offering raised about $25.6 billion initially, and an additional share sale later increased the total to roughly $29.4 billion. That made it the largest initial public offering ever recorded at the time.
The IPO did not mean that Saudi Aramco became fully private: the Saudi government retained the overwhelming majority of shares. Aramco is also distinct from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which owns stakes in many other major companies.