Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, revealed on Tuesday that the Kingdom was in discussions to sell 1% of state oil firm Saudi Aramco to a leading global energy company.
In an interview aired on Saudi TV to mark the fifth anniversary of Vision 2030, he said: “There are talks now for the acquisition of a 1% stake by a leading global energy company in an important deal that would boost Aramco's sales in ... a major country.”
“There are talks with other companies for different stakes, and part of Aramco's shares could be transferred to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and a part listed ... on the Saudi bourse,” he added.
Crown Prince Mohammed said Aramco, the world's biggest oil company which listed on the Saudi bourse in late 2019, could sell further shares including to international investors within the next year or two.
The PIF does not contribute revenues to the state treasury, he went on to say. “We created a huge fund so that after 2030 it will be replenishing the state revenues,” he elaborated.
“Our main focus is the growth of this Public Investment Fund. This is what has been done in four years, it has grown by 300 percent. In the next five years it will grow by 200, or more than 200 percent, and hopefully in 2030 we will reach up to 10 trillion,” he remarked.
“Afterwards a policy will be established based on the situation to see how much we are going to disburse as revenues. The figure will not exceed 2.5 percent of the amount of the fund in order to maintain the continuity of the growth and the inflow of revenues,” stressed the Crown Prince.
