- Saudi Arabia's government transferred a 4% stake in Aramco, worth nearly $80 billion, to its sovereign wealth fund reducing its direct ownership to 90.18%. Aramco confirmed the transfer won't impact its operations, strategy, governance framework, or dividend distribution policy.
- According to SPA, the crown prince stated that this action is part of the efforts to diversify the economy and broaden investment prospects in line with Saudi Vision 2030. Bloomberg estimates the value of the 4% stake to be $77.8 billion, based on Aramco's market valuation of over $1.9 trillion.
Why it matters
As a part of their initiative to expand the $620 billion fund to over $1 trillion by 2025, the Saudi Arabian government had initially transferred 4% to the PIF last year. Additionally, in 2019, almost 2% of Aramco was sold by the state during its initial public offering.