Appetite for Saudi Aramco’s first international bond, which will be issued this week, is more than $30 billion (Dh110.1 billion), according to Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih, speaking on Monday.
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00:00The demand for Saudi Arabia's inaugural international bond is as high as $30 billion, according
00:08to Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khaled Al Faleh speaking on Monday. Last week Aramco
00:14met with investors on a global bond roadshow with Faleh estimating that the bond would
00:18raise around $10 billion. He's now said in Riyadh today that he estimates that to actually
00:23be $30 billion on account for higher emerging markets interest and international demand
00:28for the bond. The deal is expected to close on Wednesday. The bond, which was announced
00:33last week and is expected to close on Wednesday today, is expected to go in part to financing
00:39Saudi Aramco's acquisition of SABIC, another major Saudi state-owned industrial company,
00:44which is estimated to be around $69.7 billion for a 70% stake in the company. In other oil-related
00:52news, the UAE's Minister of Energy, Sultan Al-Mazroui, said on Monday that the currency
00:56with which oil is traded in, the US dollar, could not be changed overnight. He told reporters
01:02that we shouldn't jump into ideas as it wasn't perhaps as easy as one might expect. This
01:07comes in response to Saudi Arabia threatening to potentially change the currency denomination
01:14that it trades oil in from dollars to a different currency. That again was in retaliation to
01:20the US pressing in courts to accuse OPEC of anti-competitive issues or anti-trust matters.
01:27This has been an issue that's been brewing for over 20 years and is continuing to gain
01:32headlines and traction in the last recent weeks. And finally, Dubai-based e-commerce
01:37site AWOC said on Monday that it had raised $30 million in Series A funding, or investment
01:44from outside investors, in exchange for shares within the company. AWOC, which is a competitor
01:49to Souq and Noon, has not yet taken any money from external investors, being self-funded
01:56up until this point. AWOC says it will use the money to expand into Saudi Arabia to attract
02:01global talent and to enhance its website. The company was originally founded in 2013
02:07in order to sell electronics and other kinds of technologies. It's since diversified into
02:13a broader range of products. That's all from us today. You can find the latest headlines
02:17on Golf News. I'm Ed Clouds. Thanks very much for watching.