🔴Shareholders in Aramco should get rid of their shares so they do not incur losses in the coming days,🔴 a military source told the Ansar Allah-aligned Saba News Agency Wednesday.
The Houthis targeted the Saudi state oil giant’s HQ in Dhahran and Aramco’s Riyadh refinery Tuesday night after Saudi strikes hit a major oil storage site in Sanaa. They’ve also attacked the Yanbu oil terminal – terminus of the East-West mega pipeline, and refineries in Jizan, Shedgum, Tanajib, Ras Tanura and Jubail.
Aramco’s share prices have dropped by ~3% since July – when a Saudi airstrike kicked off the current round of fighting with the Houthis.
~2.5% of the company is currently owned by private investors after share offerings in 2019 and 2024 (valuation - $40.5B of a total market capitalization of ~$1.6T). Major investors include BlackRock, Vanguard, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and the Investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s National Bank.
🤔 The 2019 IPO was originally meant to be for 5% of the company, and to raise $100B, with a $2T valuation, but that never materialized.
If Aramco’s bottom line were impacted by further Houthi strikes, it could pose an existential financial and economic crisis not just for the company, but the Saudi state itself, since oil brings in 60-70% of all government revenues, facilitating public investments, subsidies and a rentier state social contract.
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