Even before the latest slew of announcements regarding the agreement by Saudi Arabia’s flagship oil and gas company, Aramco, to acquire a 70 percent stake in the Kingdom’s key petrochemicals company, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), for US$69.1 billion, from the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the ‘deal’ looked like a meaningless accounting trick that transfers money from one side of the Saudi balance sheet to another. It looked like that because that is what it is but it is much worse than that as well. Over and above the rhetorical nonsense spouted by the various involved participants about value-enhancing ‘synergies’ between the two entities floats the stark fact that there are none at all. Aramco chief executive officer, Amin Nasser, has often stressed that he wants to position the company less as a straightforward crude oil extraction unit and more as a high-value-added developer […]