Why did Saudi Aramco go public?
Saudi Aramco is currently the most valuable publicly traded company in the world and surpassed a market cap of $2 trillion after its recent IPO. Strangely though, they only offered 1.5% of shares to the public on a free float. The remaining 98.5% of shares are held by insiders/controlling shareholders. About the exact opposite percentages of the worlds next 5 leading companies.
So my question is, why even go public? I’m sure I could probably find some bullshit reasons in their S-1 filing, but it’s 6:30am and I’m not about to do that.
Solved! Some nerd did the maths for me on this site already.
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/saudi-aramco-a-deal-of-the-decade
Answer is partly because 1) they don’t want to expose the internal operations to the public b/c then we’d have solid proof the Saudi royal family hides their expenses and likely other shady shit in this machine. 2) It allows Saudi Arabia to raise capital for state-run spending cause they ran a budget deficit prior like a bunch of goddamn assholes
Pats on the back to me for learning things at this hour.
to steal shares from uninformed retail investors of course
What interesting is that theoretically Aramco could be worth even more than $2T considering that there's a substantial control premium in the current price.
The real reason is so that MBS can feel like he has a big ****.
You might want to read Matt Levine's 'Money Stuff' newsletters over the past couple weeks. (beyond the standard fact that they're normally hilarious) It's a tiny float on a friendly local exchange, with prominent Saudi families "encouraged" to buy shares. Many of these families had members "kept" at the Ritz last year. To be honest, threatening jail, torture, or death if you don't buy the stock or if you sell it is a pretty good way of propping up a stock price.
Is this a serious take? Do you know anything about this "IPO"?
If you've ever wanted to support one of the world's #1 supporters of terrorism now is a great chance. You even get bonus suppression of free speech and woman. Disgusting country.
(I have lots of Saudi friends and precisely 0 of them live there for good reason)
Not even close. Investing in any Chinese companies would be indirectly funding the development of a surveillant state that targets its own people and ethnic minorities.
don’t invest in Aramco, invest in my LGBT friendly Saudi SEX DUNGEON
Do you have a pitchbook, or have the associates been slacking off?
Molestias eius totam porro. Debitis qui impedit et necessitatibus.
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