Saudi Aramco shares will start trading on Dec. 11, the Saudi securities exchange Tadawul said on Friday. In a statement, Tadawul announced that the listing and trading of Saudi Aramco will start on Wednesday Dec.11, 2019, with the symbol 2222, and a ±10% daily price fluctuation limit. The Saudi oil giant priced on Thursday its initial public offering at SR32 ($8.53) per share, raising $25.6 billion and beating Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's record $25 billion listing in 2014. On the first day of trading only, the opening auction for Saudi Aramco will be extended for 30 minutes. Accordingly, the opening auction session will start from 9:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. AST on Wednesday only. Continuous trading will start at 10:30 a.m. AST, and closing auction at 3:00 p.m. AST as usual. The opening auction will remain the same for the rest of the securities listed on the Main Market from 9:30 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. AST. Continuous trading for the rest of listed securities on the Main Market will commence at 10:00 a.m. At this level, Aramco would have a market valuation of $1.7 trillion, overtaking Apple Inc. as the most valuable listed firm. The energy giant had been offering 1.5 percent, or three billion, of the company's shares on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). A third of those shares, 0.5 percent, were allocated to retail, or individual investors. Aramco completed the retail portion of its IPO last Thursday. It was 1.48 times oversubscribed with SR47.4 billion ($12.64 billion) in orders. According to the IPO prospectus, Saudi Arabian retail investors that hold their shares for a minimum of 180 days, or six months, will be eligible for a 10 percent discount through the allocation of additional bonus shares. The Aramco IPO is a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan, which aims to wean the Kingdom off its reliance on oil to diversify the economy. The proceeds from the listing will go towards these diversification initiatives and could be invested in sectors such as logistics, mining, or developing the manufacturing and industrial economy. The IPO may also impact the regional markets by encouraging a greater number of companies to list across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) after a quiet third quarter, PwC said in early November. "We anticipate the coming quarter to be significantly more active with the recent announcement of Saudi Aramco's record breaking flotation on Tadawul, along with many other companies which have expressed their intention to list in 2019," said Steve Drake, partner, Capital Markets, PwC Middle East. The company, which plans to pay a base dividend of $75 billion in 2020, reported a profit of $111.1 billion in 2018 and $46.9 billion in the first half of 2019. — Agencies
