Saudi Aramco is wasting no time pushing ahead with its initial public offering (IPO) (GM July 26, p. 16), leaving legions of analysts scrambling to prepare research that will help investors decide whether to buy into one of the world’s biggest-ever share sales, according to Bloomberg, which reported that investment banks’ research teams started meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 25, in the desert city of Dhahran for two packed days of briefings by Aramco top officials.
They will then have barely three weeks to prepare their pre-IPO reports on Aramco, according to an internal schedule seen by Bloomberg. That compares to the six to eight weeks they are normally given for some of the biggest global listings.
Each bank’s research team will need to finish a first draft of their analysis by the end of the day on Oct. 9, with second drafts due on Oct. 15. The reports need to be finalized and printed by Oct. 18 so that they can be ready to distribute to fund managers once Aramco announces its intention to float on Oct. 20, the schedule shows. However, Bloomberg noted that analysts have some leeway, as they can lean on work done earlier this year when Aramco raised $12 billion through its debut bond sale.
Aramco is speeding up preparations for the IPO with an aim of listing on the Saudi bourse as soon as November. The IPO could make Aramco the world’s biggest listed company if it hits its target market capitalization of $2 trillion.
Also on Sept. 25, Aramco told analysts that production capacity has been restored to 11.3 million b/d, and that the damaged plants at Abqaiq and Khurais were back to their output levels prior to the recent drone attacks.