Britain Aggressively Courts $2 Trillion Saudi Aramco Listing<br />By STANLEY REED and MICHAEL J. de la MERCEDJULY 13, 2017<br />LONDON — London and New York have been battling for months over what could be the biggest<br />public offering in history, Saudi Arabia’s state energy company Saudi Aramco.<br />Listing in New York would give Saudi Aramco access to what is seen as the biggest market in<br />the world, with the investor capital available to support trading in such a huge company.<br />In a paper published this year, Bassam Fattouh, the director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, wrote<br />that low oil prices could mean that the reduced tax rate on Aramco "may not be sustainable" — such a combination would deprive the government of much-needed funds for social and development spending.<br />Debuting on the New York Stock Exchange also carries with it the prestige of a listing on the Big Board,<br />and market debutantes still ring the bell on their first day of trading.<br />Saudi Aramco produces more of it than any other company — an average of 10.5 million barrels per day last year —<br />and claims reserves equivalent to 15 percent of the world’s total.<br />But some analysts believe the kingdom agreed to trim production late last year not just to lift oil prices<br />but also because of worries that a low price would affect the I.P.O.
