A successful IPO of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, is expected to boost investor sentiment in the region, a senior official at Emirates NBD said.

“Saudi Aramco IPO is very important for the region. It’s probably going to be the largest IPO in the world,” Asar Mashkoor, Managing Director Investment Banking at Emirates NBD Capital told Zawya.

The initial public offering (IPO), which is set to rank Aramco as the world’s most valuable company, will start on November 17.

In its IPO prospectus, Aramco said that it will sell up to 0.5 percent of its shares to individual retail investors and will be restricted from issuing additional shares for 12 months after the IPO.

The prospectus added that the offering for institutional investors will begin on November 17 and end on December 4, while individual investors (like Saudi nationals, GCC nationals and Saudi residents) will be able to bid for the shares from November 17 to November 28.

“We all hope for its success and I think once that is a successful IPO then hopefully that revives the regional capital markets,” Mashkour said, adding that the IPO could attract investor interest to the region, particularly from international investors.

The company intends to price its IPO on December 5 and the Aramco stock is expected to trade on the Saudi Exchange, Tadawul, several days later.

According to Reuters, analysts from banks working on the Riyadh listing have projected a wide valuation range between $1.2 trillion to $2.3 trillion.

At the top valuation of $2 trillion, Aramco could potentially raise $40 billion, topping the record-breaking $25 billion raised by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014, the Reuters report added.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun, editing by Seban Scaria)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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