Saudi Aramco eclipses Apple as world’s top-earning company

Agencies
April 2, 2019

Dubai, Apr 2: Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, made core earnings of $224 billion last year, almost three times as much as Apple, figures from the state-owned company showed on Monday ahead of its debut international bond issue.

Aramco revealed its financials in order to obtain a public rating and start issuing public international bonds.

Despite the huge profit, the state-owned oil giant was rated by credit agencies at par with Saudi Arabia, meaning the Kingdom’s economy will weigh on Aramco’s cost of borrowing as it prepares its bond market debut.

Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said earlier this year the planned bond sale would raise around $10 billion, but banking sources said the transaction could be larger.

Rating agencies Fitch and Moody’s rated Aramco A+ and A1 respectively, but both said that without sovereign rating constraints Aramco would be in the same league as better-rated international oil companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell.

Fitch put Aramco’s standalone credit profile at “AA+.”

Credit ratings allow investors to compare and assess the credit quality of bond issuers and their debt securities, and are important in determining how much borrowers have to pay.

The planned bond deal is Aramco’s inaugural transaction in international markets. It still plans to launch an initial public stock offering or IPO in 2021, expected to generate $100 billion, having postponed its flotation from 2018.

“Saudi Aramco has many characteristics of a Aaa-rated corporate, with minimal debt relative to cash flows, large scale of production, market leadership and access in Saudi Arabia to one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves,” said Rehan Akbar, senior credit officer at Moody’s.

The group has 257 billion barrels of oil equivalent, representing over 50 years of reserves based on current production levels, according to a company presentation given to investors and seen by Reuters.

Aramco will start meeting international bond investors this week for the much anticipated debt transaction, expected to attract hefty demand from global investors.

The planned bond sale follows the announced acquisition of a 70 percent stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world’s fourth-largest petrochemicals maker, from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), in a deal worth $69.1 billion.

The bond sale, which may be split into tranches with maturities ranging from three to 30 years, is not linked to the SABIC acquisition, Aramco said.

Aramco intends to pay for the acquisition in tranches, with 50 percent at the closing of the transaction and the remainder over a two-year period, from internal cash generation and, potentially, other resources, the company said in its presentation.

Aramco had earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) of $224 billion in 2018. By contrast Apple, which according to Forbes was the world’s top company in terms of profits last year, had normalized core earnings, or EBITDA, of $81.8 billion.

Moody's Investors Service said Aramco posted a net profit of $111.1 billion in 2018 — far higher than the combined net earnings of the five international oil majors — and generated $359.9 billion in revenues. Last year, Apple posted nearly $50 billion in net profits.

“Saudi Aramco has an extremely strong liquidity position,” Moody’s said, with $48.8 billion in cash against $27 billion in reported debt.

“The company’s balance sheet leverage has been conservatively managed,” said the agency, adding it has $46.8 billion of bank facilities, of which about $25.5 billion was still available.

Aramco representatives will meet with investors in Asia, Europe and the US through Friday, April 5, according to a document issued by one of the banks leading the deal.

The roadshow has no planned stop in the Middle East, showing the transaction is mostly aimed at international buyers.

“The blue-chip company is extremely profitable, free cash flow positive, has low leverage and strong reserves for the future, making it a compelling investment case for global investors,” said Parth Kikani, fixed income director at Emirates NBD Asset Management.

Aramco is presenting itself to global investors as an “anchor of global energy” and a global energy provider of systemic importance, producing one of every eight barrels of global crude, according to the investor presentation.

It had $86 billion in free cash flow at the end of 2018.

The SABIC acquisition, at the heart of Aramco’s push to expand in the downstream business, will not impact Aramco’s rating, the company said in the presentation.

Aramco has hired Lazard as financial adviser for the planned bond deal, and JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley as global coordinators. They are joined by Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and NCB Capital as bookrunners.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
November 7,2024

lebanon.jpg

The Israeli regime has killed at least 40 people during new airstrikes against eastern Lebanese areas, besides targeting the country’s capital Beirut with fresh acts of aggression.

Lebanon’s health ministry announced the fatalities on Wednesday, saying 53 other people had also been wounded during the aerial attacks that targeted the country’s Bekaa Valley, including the city of Baalbek.

In early Thursday, the regime was also reported to have attacked Beirut’s southern suburbs, including a site adjacent to Rafiq Hariri International Airport.

The attacks came after the regime issued short-notice evacuation orders apparently directed at the residents of the areas, claiming that the areas contained facilities belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement.

Tel Aviv has been using similar claims on countless occasions since last October, when it markedly intensified its deadly acts of aggression against Lebanon, in order to try to justify the escalation. Hezbollah has, however, invariably refuted the claims.

Also on Wednesday, the United Nations warned in its most recent flash report on the humanitarian crisis caused by the Israeli atrocities targeting Lebanon that the aggression had “reached a critical point.”

The attacks have claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, which was “58 percent more than the 1,900 fatalities” that were caused by the regime’s 2006 war against Lebanon, the report said.

“Additionally, an estimated 1.3 million people have been displaced, both within Lebanon and into neighboring countries, 33 percent more than the number of people displaced in 2006,” it added.

Women comprised the majority of those who had been rendered homeless within Lebanon as a result of the Israeli attacks, the report noted.

It also regretted that the Israeli attacks had featured 78 assaults on healthcare facilities across the country that had claimed the lives of 130 health workers and injured 111 others.

In response to the aggression, Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.

The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
November 7,2024

3yearoldchild.jpg

Mangaluru, Nov 7: In the quiet village of Tippunagar, Loretto Padavu, a heartbreaking accident claimed the life of three-year-old Aashika on Wednesday, leaving a family and community shattered.

Aashika, the beloved daughter of Unais from Pattanabailu near Farangipet, was simply enjoying a carefree moment, playing outside her grandmother’s house. It was then that an unimaginable tragedy struck: a parked goods tempo, owned by her uncle, unexpectedly rolled backward, trapping the innocent child beneath its wheels.

Despite her family’s desperate rush to get her to the hospital, little Aashika’s injuries proved too severe, and she was declared dead upon arrival. Her passing has cast a deep shadow over the close-knit community, who grieve alongside her family for the life taken too soon.

The Bantwal traffic police have registered a case and are investigating the incident, while the community mourns the loss of a precious young soul who had only just begun to experience life’s wonder.
 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
November 10,2024

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has warned that disciplinary action will be taken against those officials who change the land mutation records and serve eviction notices to farmers under the Waqf Act.

In a letter, the Revenue Department Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar Kataria reminded all regional commissioners and deputy commissioners in the districts that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently had a meeting following complaints about certain land properties being made in favour of the Karnataka Board of Waqfs.

In the meeting it was decided that all the directions issued previously by any government office or authority to change the mutation records has been withdrawn, the letter said.

It added that all the notices served in the past have also been withdrawn and no action should be taken against the farmers who are cultivating on the said land.

On the directions of the chief minister, the previous letters and the latest reminders served on November 7 to the farmers and land owners have been withdraw, the letter said.

"The officials who served reminder-2 despite the chief minister's direction will face appropriate disciplinary action," Kataria said in his letter.

He said he has been instructed to strictly implement the chief minister's direction.

The fresh direction was issued in poll-bound Karnataka, where bypolls to three crucial assembly segments are due on November 13.

Some farmers in Honwad village in Vijayapura in north Karnataka had alleged last month that they were served eviction notices as the Waqf Board claimed rights over it.

Subsequently, complaints started in pouring in from some other parts of the state.

BJP leader Tejasvi Surya on October 25 alleged that Karnataka Waqf Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan directed the deputy commissioners and revenue officials to register lands in favour of the Waqf Board within 15 days, which resulted in confusion.

On Surya's request, the Chairman of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Jagdambika Pal visited Karnataka on November 7 and met farmers in Hubballi, Vijayapura and Belagavi districts who had alleged that their lands were marked as Waqf properties.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.