The governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, was appointed chairman of Saudi Aramco at a time when the world’s biggest oil company gears up for its public share listing on the stock market, the former chairman, Khalid Al-Falih, announced on his Twitter account late Monday.
Al-Rumayyan will replace Al-Falih who held the role of chairman of Aramco since 2015 and led preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) of Aramco shares.
Al-Falih will continue his role as minister of energy in the country.
"I congratulate my brother His Excellency Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, the Governor of the Public Investment Fund, on his appointment as Chairman of Saudi Aramco. This comes as an important step to prepare the company for the public offering. I wish him every success," Al-Falih said on his Twitter account.
The Saudi government currently owns 100% of Saudi Aramco but Saudi Arabia aims to earn $100 billion by offering 5% of Aramco to the public. This would put the market capitalization of the company at approximately $2 trillion. The IPO is in accordance with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan. Should the IPO be successful, it will be the world's largest ever.
The plan also aims to lower the Kingdom's overdependence on oil sales and revenues by diversifying the economy and bring in more foreign capital to the Saudi foreign exchange Tadawul.
Saudi Arabia's original plan, announced by Prince Mohammed in 2016, was to sell about 5% of Aramco.
The listing was delayed until 2020 or 2021 to allow Saudi Aramco to complete the acquisition of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. worth $69 billion.
(Anadolu Agency)
