Saudi Aramco will become the second-largest shareholder of Hyundai Oilbank with the purchase of an up to 19.9 percent stake in the Korean firm.

Hyundai Oilbank said Monday it had signed an investment deal with Aramco, with the expectation of raising up to 1.8 trillion won ($1.6 billion) in a pre-initial public offering round. Aramco estimated the firm’s value to be 10 trillion won and set the value of each share at around 36,000 won.

A pre-IPO round enables investors to participate in growing a firm’s financing round a few months before its IPO. 



In December 2017, Hyundai Oilbank announced its plan to go public in 2018. However, this was delayed as the nation’s financial regulators toughened the supervision of companies going public in the wake of a scandal involving Samsung Biologics.

“The listing will inevitably be delayed as the procedure of the pre-IPO should be completed first. Funds raised through the deal will be used for investing in new business and improving financial structure,” an official from Hyundai Oilbank said.

State-owned oil company Aramco is currently the largest shareholder of the nation’s third-largest refining company S-Oil with a 63.4 percent stake. 

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)