Foreign investors were allocated about 60% of the shares on offer in Saudi Aramco’s $11.2 billion stock sale, people familiar with the matter said, marking a turnaround from the oil giant’s 2019 listing that ended up as a largely local affair.
The deal generated strong demand from the U.S. and Europe, according to the people, who declined to be identified as the information is private. Funds from the U.K., Hong Kong and Japan also backed the share sale that drew orders worth more than $65 billion in total, the people said.
During the oil giant’s listing, overseas investors had largely balked at valuation expectations and left the government reliant on local buyers. The $29.4 billion IPO drew orders worth $106 billion, and just 23% of shares were allocated to foreign buyers.