Advanced talks are reportedly on for the Saudi Arabian firm Aramco’s deal to purchase a roughly 20% stake in Reliance’s oil refining unit for about $20 billion to $25 billion-worth of Aramco shares, in an all-stock deal.
The deal between the worlds biggest oil exporter and one of the fastest-growing energy consumers could be closed in a matter of weeks. Discussions and due diligence is still on, however, and nothing has been officialy declared by spokespeople for both parties at the moment.
The deal, if it goes through, would mark Aramcos first all-stock deal since its record-breaking initial public offering in 2019, the world’s largest. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had confirmed talks about the “15-billion dollar deal” and provided updates in the latest Reliance AGM. Discussions were delayed by COVID-19 and the subsequent fall in oil prices, but some headway seems to have been achieved now.
Shares in Reliance went up on by 2.6 percent on the BSE in Mumbai after news first broke about the possible deal.