Saudi prince offloads 4% Aramco stake to public

NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince announced on Sunday the transfer of a 4 per cent stake of the oil giant Saudi Aramco to a subsidiary of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, further boosting its coffers as the kingdom tries to expand its economy beyond oil.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s decision, announced by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, sends the stake to the Saudi Arabian Investment Co., known as Sanabil Investments. Sanabil is under the sovereign wealth fund known as the Public Investment Fund.

“The transfer will also solidify PIF’s strong financial position and credit rating,” the statement about the deal said. It gave no possible investment targets for either Sanabil or the PIF.

Saudi Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., acknowledged the shares going to Sanabil. It said the Saudi government remains the oil firm’s biggest shareholder, with over 90 per cent of its stock.

“This is a private transfer between the state and Sanabil, 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,” Aramco said in a stock market filing.

In February 2022, another 4 per cent of Aramco had been transferred to the PIF. Just 1.73 per cent of the company, a narrow sliver, is traded on Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock market since the company’s 2019 initial public offering.

Aramco has a market value of $1.94 trillion, making it the world’s third most-valuable firm, behind just Apple and Microsoft respectively. That makes the 4 per cent worth in theory some $77.6 billion.

Aramco stock traded slightly up on the Tadawul to $8.82 a share on Sunday.