Saudi Aramco IPO Is Announced | Hacker News Reader

Saudi Aramco IPO Is Announced

nytimes.com

> Much of the proceeds from the offering are not likely to flow to Aramco’s operations but into the Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund that is evolving into Prince Mohammed’s main vehicle for shifting the Saudi economy from its reliance on oil.

Why I would to invest in a company that the state is looking to actively divest from? They're telling us they don't believe in the future of this company.

Well,

a) They are only selling about 5%, so they are not divesting themselves of the vast majority, for now.

b) "Saudi Arabia is pressuring wealthy families to buy in to the initial public offering of its state oil giant, as part of a plan to achieve the $2tn valuation coveted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman... Many of the families targeted had members previously imprisoned in Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton hotel in 2017 and 2018, in what the government billed as a crackdown on corruption. Some of the detainees said they were tortured, according to people aware of the matter. Most were later freed after they reached financial settlements with the state."

Hearing that people are pressured to buy it, to ensure its success, further diminishes my confidence in it. I agree that 5% is pretty minimal.

This feels like wework, where the company's value has been extracted out as much is possible while it was private, so now they IPO to maybe get enough stupid donors to buy the stock.

I doubt that they'd lower their investment. This is more like you're investing in the economy of Saudi Arabia as a whole, just using an oil company as it's vessel.

If you've invested in any of silicon valley's recent mega IPOs like Uber, you've already enriched the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

cant read. so many popups and banners.

and then a paywall behind it all... boring. next.

vis-a-vis Aramco, so some heavy duty carbon emitters are preparing to emit a crap-ton more carbon and arranging financing accordingly.

dislike.

If you assume they are selling stock, because like in most cases, they expect it to be worth less in the future, then it follows they may be preparing to emit a crap-ton less carbon in the future and want other people to be holding the bag.

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