In what is expected to be the largest initial public offering in history, a state-owned oil and gas behemoth in Saudi Arabia is about to become the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co., aka Saudi Aramco, has just priced its shares at $8.53, which the Wall Street Journal reports is on the higher end of its target range. That figure would give Saudi Aramco a staggering valuation of $1.7 trillion, overtaking Apple’s current market value of $1.15 trillion.
Having raised $25.6 billion, the IPO’s dollar value also easily eclipsed the current record-holder, China’s Alibaba, which raised $25 billion back in 2014.
Toppling American and Chinese tech giants in the record books is clearly a symbolic coup for Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, but as Reuters points out, the valuation will still fall significantly short of his sought-after goal of $2 trillion. (Of course, it’s not too late to start a $300 billion GoFundMe.)
Saudi Aramco is expected to begin trading on the Saudi stock exchange Tadawul on December 11.
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