Amit Bhagwan Wadhwani’s Post

The Aramco listing is dawn of a new era. The listing of Saudi giant Aramco is HUGE. It’s rare when terms like IPO & trillion dollars are talked about in same breath unless it’s the Apples and Microsofts of our generation. Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer is so big that it easily dwarfs not just all companies but also most stock exchanges. Its listing singlehandedly relegated India to the 10th position in terms of value of stock market. Although the 1.5% stake sale ensures that barely any of its shares will trade, the listing itself taunted to touch $ 2 trillion mark is a turning point in world history. For decades together geo-polity of the middle-east and world has been dictated by the black gold-crude oil. Whether it be invasion of Iraq or propping up of Israel or even global terrorism resulting out of US policies in Soviet controlled Afghanistan, the insatiable thirst of western world for crude oil has played a key role. The Aramco deal which single-handedly opens up world’s most secretive company which bankrolled the Saudi Kingdom and its rulers for decades is an assertive decision on the part of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman signaling the dawn of a new era. The question of what replaces oil in world’s energy consumption will remain open to debate. #aramco