"JPMorgan": the international listings of Saudi companies other than "Aramco"

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Last Updated: Tuesday 18 Safar 1439 H - November 7, 2017

"JPMorgan": the international listings of Saudi companies other than "Aramco"

 

Tuesday 18 Safar 1439 H - November 7, 2017

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Arabic.Net

JP Morgan has revealed that it is in preliminary talks with a number of Saudi companies on the possibility of listing its shares in foreign markets, joining Aramco, which is expected to raise 5% of its shares next year, in an initial public offering expected to be the largest in the world, To $ 100 billion.

An executive at JPMorgan said the bank plans to increase its employees by 30 percent from its current 70 employees in two to three years.

Sources told Reuters that JPMorgan was one of the banks providing Aramco's financial advice on the initial public offering.

"If they want to grow and expand, they have to be accessible through international capital markets, which is the possibility of international listing of their shares," Daniel Bento, chief executive of investment bank JP Morgan, told Reuters in an interview. That a number of Saudi companies "interested in this at an initial stage."

According to Reuters, it is the first time an influential banker speaks of the existence of Saudi companies other than Aramco looking to plans to list their shares in international markets.

The Saudi government plans to raise 5% of the estimated $ 2 billion oil giant Aramco. The value of the offering is estimated at 100 billion riyals. It will be on the Saudi stock market and another international market is yet to be determined. The IPO attracts major international bourses from New York and London to Toronto and Shanghai Tokyo and others.

Massive transformation

Pinto declined to comment on the role of JPMorgan in a stake in Aramco, but JPMorgan has been operating in Saudi Arabia for nearly 80 years.

Pinto referred to the Kingdom's economy undergoing a "massive transformation to diversify the economy. Investors reacted positively to these steps."

Pinto said the bank was in talks in Gulf countries, adding that other companies may follow the listing steps in New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. "This could help increase the liquidity of these companies and make them attractive to international investors." 

Oman earlier this year said it planned to float shares of some state-owned energy companies. Analysts and bankers said Kuwait might consider plans to include energy assets.

The dollar-denominated bond issue in the Gulf has been around $ 80 billion this year, higher than the record for 2016 at $ 63.5 billion, Thomson Reuters reported.

Pinto said the need to issue Gulf bonds would remain, "but it will be lower next year because of higher oil prices and a fall in the deficit and because much of the refinancing took place this year."