Britain Aggressively Courts $2 Trillion Saudi Aramco Listing
By STANLEY REED and MICHAEL J. de la MERCEDJULY 13, 2017
LONDON — London and New York have been battling for months over what could be the biggest
public offering in history, Saudi Arabia’s state energy company Saudi Aramco.
In a paper published this year, Bassam Fattouh, the director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, wrote
that low oil prices could mean that the reduced tax rate on Aramco “may not be sustainable” — such a combination would deprive the government of much-needed funds for social and development spending.
Listing in New York would give Saudi Aramco access to what is seen as the biggest market in
the world, with the investor capital available to support trading in such a huge company.
“Investors have long recognized this, and capital markets are well adapted to assess the treatment of other investors by sovereign countries.”
Saudi Aramco produces more of it than any other company — an average of 10.5 million barrels per day last year —
and claims reserves equivalent to 15 percent of the world’s total.
Debuting on the New York Stock Exchange also carries with it the prestige of a listing on the Big Board,
and market debutantes still ring the bell on their first day of trading.