Saudi Aramco set a record by raising about $25.6 billion in its 2019 initial public offering.
The company began trading on the Saudi Stock Exchange, Tadawul, in December 2019. The offering sold a small portion of Saudi Aramco to public investors and initially raised approximately $25.6 billion, making it the largest IPO at that time.
Saudi Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company and one of the world’s largest petroleum producers. Its enormous reserves, production volumes, and profitability made it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies by market capitalization after listing.
The IPO is often confused with the largest share offering by total percentage sold. Saudi Aramco offered only a limited stake, but the company’s enormous valuation made the cash raised exceptionally large. A later increase in the offering helped bring the total to about $29.4 billion.