https://arab.news/6n6vc
RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday announced the completion of the transfer of an additional 8 percent of the total issued shares of Saudi Aramco to portfolio companies wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, the state-run news agency reported.
This brings the state’s ownership to 82.186 percent of Aramco shares, according to SPA, with a cumulative 16 percent transferred to PIF and its subsidiaries.
The SPA report quoted the crown prince as saying the transfer of ownership of part of the state’s shares in Saudi Aramco to PIF-owned firms are part of “the Kingdom’s initiatives aimed at strengthening the national economy in the long term, diversifying its resources” and creating more investment opportunities.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the PIF continues to build new economic partnerships and localize technologies and is playing a role in the creation of more direct and indirect jobs in the labor market.
“The transfer will also solidify PIF’s strong financial position and credit rating,” SPA added.
Last year, 4 percent of Aramco’s shares, worth tens of billions of dollars, were transferred to PIF’s Sanabil Investments.
In 2022, another 4 percent of Aramco shares, estimated at the time to be worth $80 billion, were transferred directly to the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.
The oil giant sold 1.7 percent of its shares on the Saudi stock market in December 2019, generating $29.4 billion in the world’s biggest initial public offering.
The PIF has made high-profile investments in firms including Uber and Disney.
The crown prince has said he wants the fund to have assets worth $1 trillion by the end of 2025.
PIF invested $31.5 billion last year to become the world’s top spending sovereign wealth fund. It had roughly $700 billion in assets under management before the new transfer.
Saudi Aramco acknowledged the transfer in a corporate disclosure. “This is a private transfer and the company is not a party to the transfer and did not enter into any agreements or pay or receive any proceeds from the transfer,” it said.
“The transfer will not affect the company’s total number of issued shares, and the shares transferred will rank equally alongside other existing ordinary shares in the company,” it said, adding it would have no impact on its operations, strategy, dividend policy or governance framework.
Aramco has a market value of $2 trillion, making it the world’s fourth most-valuable firm, behind just Apple, Microsoft and NVIDIA respectively.
Aramco stock traded slightly up on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange to $8.45 a share Thursday. Benchmark Brent crude traded Thursday above $82 a barrel.