Saudi Aramco made the largest stock-market debut in history when it went public in 2019.
The Saudi Arabian Oil Company, commonly called Saudi Aramco, listed shares on the Tadawul stock exchange in Riyadh in December 2019. The offering raised about $25.6 billion, making it the largest initial public offering ever recorded at the time. An additional share option later increased the proceeds to roughly $29.4 billion.
Saudi Aramco’s enormous valuation came from its position as Saudi Arabia’s national oil company and from the scale of its reserves and production operations. Its listing gave public investors access to a small portion of the company while the Saudi government retained overwhelming ownership.
The IPO is often confused with the largest company by market value on a particular day. Those rankings can change with share prices, whereas an IPO measures money raised when previously private shares are first sold to the public.