Saudi Aramco confirms to sell 0.5% to retail investors, lockup period for government

DUBAI (Reuters) – State-owned Saudi Aramco will sell 0.5% of its shares to individual shareholders and the government will have a lockup period of at least six months on further share sales after the initial public offering, its prospectus said on Saturday.

The over 600-page prospectus did not include details of how much of the company would be floated or any commitments from anchor investors.

Aramco fired the starting gun on the initial public offering (IPO) on Nov. 3 after a series of false starts. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking to raise billions of dollars to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil by investing in non-energy industries.