Saudi Aramco IPO retail offering is fully covered with one day to go

The retail tranche of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering is fully covered with one day to go.

Subscription reached SAR32.6bn ($8.7bn) with 3.7 million people signing up, lead manager Samba Capital said. Most transactions were made online and at bank branches.

Retail investors are key to the IPO as the deal became a mainly regional affair. About a third of the offering was set aside for them and many Saudis were keen to invest in the deal fraught with delays.

Aramco is still seeking to drum up support among institutional investors, making pitches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi this week. Abu Dhabi plans to put as much as $1.5bn into the offering, while the Kuwait Investment Authority is considering a potential investment, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Key details:

Price range: SAR30 ($8) to SAR32 per share

Retail subscription period: Nov. 17-Nov. 28

Institutional book-building period: Nov. 17-Dec. 4

Final price and valuation on Dec. 5

Refund of excess subscription amount to individual investors: Dec. 12

Listing date for Aramco shares still to be announced

World’s biggest IPO?

Proceeds from the sale will be transferred to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, which has been making a number of a bold investments, plowing $45bn into SoftBank Corp.’s Vision Fund, taking a $3.5bn stake in Uber Technologies and planning a $500bn futuristic city.