Oil rig dusk Sometime in the next 12 to 24 months, the world will see probably see the biggest IPO in history, and one that may remain unparalleled for a century or more – the IPO of Saudi oil giant Aramco. Aramco says it has more than 260 billion barrels of recoverable reserves – 10 times the level that Exxon has. In addition, Aramco has marginal recovery costs for each barrel of around $6 each – perhaps the lowest in the world. Despite all of that, Aramco the Aramco IPO faces some major challenges. First of all, the Aramco IPO sets the stage for a tremendous diversification challenge for Saudi Arabia. Aramco likely has a value of around $3 trillion as a total company, so even selling 5% of the company will require finding investors willing to shell out around $150 billion. That valuation likely means that Aramco will […]