Saudi Aramco to work on IPO after SABIC deal is complete: Al-Falih

State-owned Saudi Aramco will begin preparations on its initial public offering (IPO) after completing the acquisition of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on Wednesday.

“The IPO will come as soon as we are ready. We will start working on the IPO once we close the SABIC acquisition and the balance sheets are consolidated,” the minister said at the first Financial Sector Conference (FSC) in Riyadh.

When asked if the IPO would come in 2021, the minister said: “It could slip or move forward a little bit.”

The oil major is also planning to access the bond and debt market, locally and internationally.

Al-Falih said that the $12 billion inaugural bond issue, launched this month, was “just the beginning and not the end.”

Last month, Aramco signed a share purchase agreement to acquire a 70 percent majority stake in SABIC from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, for $69 billion.

Declining to give a price estimate on short-term oil price, the minister said the oil market inventories were continuing to rise despite Venezuela and Iran sanctions.

“Beyond June the sentiment in general is that as oil producers we shouldn’t lift hands from the wheel,” he stated.

Write to Parag Deulgaonkar at parag.d@argaamplus.com and

Write to Sunil Kumar Singh at sunil.kumar@argaamplus.com