Saudi Aramco pitches to investors in Dubai to drum up support for IPO

Saudi Aramco officials met investors in Dubai on Sunday in a sales push for an initial public offering that could be the world’s largest.

The investor meetings are Aramco’s first outside Saudi Arabia since the world’s most profitable company said earlier this month it would sell 1.5 per cent of its stock. Aramco executives including Chief Financial Officer Khalid Al-Dabbagh briefed potential investors on strategy and dividend plans, according to several participants who didn’t want to be identified because the meetings were confidential.

Locally-based investors left the briefings at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dubai’s financial district with printed copies of the company’s more-than-600-page prospectus. The meetings were invitation-only and participants needed printed badges to access the ballroom area where the sessions were held. The executives said they didn’t receive information they hadn’t already seen from the company’s disclosures or media reports.

Saudi Arabia planned the Aramco IPO as a cornerstone of its economic diversification plans, using the company’s oil wealth to attract foreign capital to the country. Even after the oil giant set its valuation at lower than the initially mooted $2 trillion, Wall Street’s top banks have struggled to bring in foreign investors.

Malaysia’s state energy company Petroliam Nasional Bhd was one of the latest to decide against participating in the IPO. Some investors leaving the Dubai meeting said they were positive about Aramco’s prospects and would consider investing.

The price range for the share offering values the company between $1.6 trillion and $1.71 trillion. If Aramco achieves the higher end of that range, proceeds from the sale could exceed the previous record of $25bn raised by Alibaba Group Holding in 2014.