Saudi Aramco earnings drop $15bn as IPO gets underway
Saudi Aramco’s income fell by over $15bn (£11.6bn) year-on-year, the company announced this morning, just a day after the oil giant’s long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) got underway.
Results for the first nine months of 2019 showed that income slipped from $83.3bn in 2018 to $68.2bn this year, with revenues down from $233.3bn to $217.1bn.
Read more: Saudi Aramco gets the green light for December float
The company did not release a statement accompanying today’s results, which are in line with those of other major oil companies.
In the last week a sustained decline in oil prices has knocked the third quarter earnings of firms including Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell. BP’s profits alone slipped $749m in the quarter.
On Sunday Saudi Aramco’s IPO was finally given the green light after four years of delays.
The world’s most valuable company will list on Saudi Arabia’s domestic Tadawul exchange in December, with an international float a possibility afterwards.
The initial plan is to sell one to two per cent of the company, which has been valued at $1.5 trillion by independent investors.
A sale of two per cent at this valuation would make the float comfortably the largest of all time and generate up to $40bn in revenues for the kingdom.
However, valuations have been fluctuating in recent days, with a range between $1.2 trillion to $2.3 trillion estimated by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to Reuters sources.
The oil giant’s chief executive Amin Nasser said that the prospectus for the IPO would be issued on 9 November, with both the institutional and retail investor roadshow to take two weeks.
Read more: Saudi Aramco to pay out $75bn dividend as it courts investors ahead of IPO
Chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan told the press conference that the valuation for the company should be determined after the roadshow.
The company also announced that Saudi nationals subscribing to the listing would be eligible for bonus shares.
Main image credit: Getty