Saudi Aramco became the world’s most valuable listed company at its 2019 stock-market debut.
The company began trading on the Saudi Stock Exchange, or Tadawul, in December 2019. Its initial public offering valued the company at about $1.7 trillion, making it the largest initial public offering at the time and briefly placing it above Apple by market capitalization.
Saudi Aramco is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and traces its corporate history to the concession granted to Standard Oil of California in 1933. The company’s enormous reserves and oil production capacity underpin its valuation, although oil prices and energy-market expectations can move its market value sharply.
Its offering sold only a portion of the company. That distinction matters: an IPO can make a company publicly traded without transferring ownership of the entire business to public shareholders.