On Monday, Aramco shares opened trading at Riyals 27 ($7.19) before rising modestly to close at Riyals 28.35. That is 11.4% below its IPO price, prompting the company's valuation to slide to about $1.5 trillion from $1.7 trillion in December, in the wake of Friday's failure by OPEC and Russia to reach a deal on oil production cuts.

This would make Aramco's listing the world's largest, beating Alibaba's $25bn IPO at $25.6bn.

In total, the Saudi government plans to sell 0.5% of Aramco to individual investors and the remainder to domestic institutions and international firms registered in the kingdom, known as qualified foreign investors.

Russia, a key non-OPEC ally, has so far opposed deeper cuts or a longer extension. But Moscow has often taken a tough stance before every meeting before approving the policy. Sources said Saudi Arabia was working on convincing Russia.

With an oil production capacity of about 12mn b/d and posting a profit of $46.9bn in the first half of 2019, Aramco is betting institutional investors will rush to buy the 5% stake set to be sold by the Saudi government.

FT - Kazakhstan’s state-run oil and gas company KazMunaiGas is finalising plans for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $6.5bn, in what could be central Asia’s largest ever stock market listing.

BLOOMBERG - Saudi Arabia’s crown prince insisted the stalled plan to sell shares in oil giant Aramco will go ahead, promising an initial public offering by 2021 and sticking to his ambitious view the state-run company is worth $2 trillion or more.

ARAB NEWS - The Government remains committed to the IPO of Saudi Aramco at a time of its own choosing when conditions are optimum. This timing will depend on multiple factors, including favorable market conditions, and a downstream acquisition which the Company will pursue in the next few months, as directed by its Board of Directors.

REUTERS - “The stability in oil prices is a net positive. If energy companies can demonstrate to investors that they can generate cash flow in the current oil price environment, they can go public,” said Grant Kernaghan, Citigroup’s managing director of Canadian investment banking. “The recent volatility hasn’t resulted in markets shutting down,” he added, suggesting equity markets were still open despite a 10-session period up to Feb. 8 when the S&P 500 dropped over 10 percent.

Saudi officials are seeking to transform Saudi Aramco into the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, which they say is worth about $2tn.