Saudi Aramco IPO not causing liquidity issues for banks, says SAMA governor

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) is monitoring banking indicators on a daily basis and is not seeing any impact on liquidity from Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO), Ahmed Alkholifey, governor of SAMA, said on Sunday.

“We are monitoring all indicators on a daily basis and if there is any squeeze on liquidity, definitely we’ll be injecting liquidity but so far ... everything is assuring,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual conference of Saudi and UAE banks in Riyadh.

He further added that the “Saudi banking sector enjoys very high levels of liquidity compared to Basel requirements.”

On Nov. 17, Saudi Aramco launched its IPO for retail and institutional investors, Argaam reported earlier. The retail offering will close on Nov. 28, while the deadline to submit bid forms for institutional investors is set for December 4.

Retail investors in the world’s biggest IPO will have to bid at the top end of the price range (SAR 32 per share). The Saudi oil producer will sell up 0.5%, or 1 billion shares of the total offer shares to retail investors.

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