Riyadh: Saudi Aramco has offered indicative pricing for four-tranche dollar-denominated bonds, a term sheet seen by Reuters showed on Monday, a deal likely to raise billions of dollars for the world’s top oil exporter.
The indicative price for the three-year debt sale has been set at around 100 basis points over US Treasuries, the five-year comes with an initial price of around 115 bps over the same benchmark, while 10-year and 30-year bonds were initially priced at around 125 bps and 165 bps over Treasuries, respectively, the document showed.
Aramco last tapped the debt markets in September, raising $3 billion with a sale of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, which followed a bond sale in May for $5 billion. It had stayed away from the debt markets for three years until it returned to raise $6 billion in July 2024.
Aramco, which has long been a cash cow for the Saudi government, said last August that it was cutting costs across the company and looking to divest assets as crude prices fell and its debt rose.
Aramco’s total dividends for 2025 are expected around $85.4 billion, a roughly 30 per cent drop from 2024 as payouts linked to free cash flow dwindled. The government owns nearly 81.5 per cent of Aramco directly, while the sovereign wealth fund PIF controls another 16 per cent. Reuters had reported on Aramco’s cost-cutting and divestment measures ahead of its chief financial officer’s confirmation on an earnings call, including a planned sale of gas plants.
Aramco has also raised funds via other avenues. Last year, it signed an $11 billion lease and leaseback agreement involving its Jafurah gas processing facilities with a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), part of BlackRock. In 2024, the Saudi government raised $12.35 billion by floating a 0.64 per cent stake in Aramco.