Tricky one here:
The world’s biggest float – the $2 trillion listing of state-owned oil titan Saudi Aramco – is under threat in the wake of attacks on the desert kingdom that triggered the biggest spike in oil prices for almost three decades.
The weekend drone strikes on Aramco’s vast Abqaiq refinery and the Khurais oil field – Saudi Arabia’s second-largest – sent shockwaves through markets.
Brent crude soared as much as 20pc on Monday, hitting a high of almost $72 a barrel in the biggest one-day rise since the first Gulf War in 1991, before retreating to just under $69.
A higher oil price increases the value of someone that owns oil reserves. But the value is decreased by people trying to blow up the processing plant. And so which is the more important influence here?
Not that I think the float will get away at anything like the asking price. The company’s just never going to be independent enough from the local government for it to be transparent.