Canada plays up its natural resources to attract Saudi Aramco listing

The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is vying to win part of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO) and Canada is capitalizing on its experience in natural resources in its bid to compete for the much-anticipated listing, Reuters reported, citing pitch documents.

Seeking a slice of the massive share sale, TSX cited a customized regulatory environment for resource issuers, its leading position in oil and gas equity capital raising, and strong trading interest from outside the country.

The pitch documents aim to convince Saudi officials that Canada excels in 10 of the 12 areas they have targeted for development under that plan, including mining and infrastructure, an unnamed source close to the matter said.

"We feel that we have put TMX and Canada's best foot forward and we continue to promote our strengths in pursuit of business opportunities in the region and around the world," TMX said in the statement carried by Reuters.

During several visits to the Kingdom, the most recent in late March, executives from TMX Group, the parent of TSX, along with other officials from some of Canadian biggest banks, brokerages and other financial players as Canada Inc seeks a role in delivering the Saudi Vision 2030.

While TSX has a late start in competing among other exchanges in London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, a recent change in U.S. law that allows those affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks to sue the Saudi government could enhance Toronto’s position.

Canada-listed oil and gas companies raised 22 percent of global energy financing over the past five years, the TMX pitch documents showed. It followed New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with 44 percent.

Meanwhile, Canada came in third place behind Chinese and Hong Kong exchanges, and the United States for total capital raised in 2016, the documents showed.

Toronto-listed oil and gas producers and the junior TSXV have a total market capitalization of CAD325 billion ($239 billion), TMX said.

The market cap of oil and gas firms in NYSE - which include super majors ExxonMobil Corp, Chevron and secondary listings for Royal Dutch Shell and Total – stand at $3.3 trillion.

The Saudi government plans to list up to 5 percent of Aramco on Tadawul and one or more international markets in Q2 2018.