The New York Stock Exchange presents an immediate vulnerability in terms of the offering becoming entangled in litigation based on the rights of individuals who believe themselves to have been harmed as a result of terrorism.

The London Stock Exchange invokes the problem of the proportion of the total IPO that it is willing to handle.

In the event the Desert Kingdom intends to float on a secondary exchange five percent of the value of Aramco.

The total offering value for Aramco is being touted as US$ 2 trillion.

This puts the value of the five percent secondary exchange offering as US$100 billion.

Another factor in favour of the Toronto exchange is its familiarity with commodities.

The imminence of the flotation has been signalled by the Saudis sprucing up Aramco in terms of its tax appeal.

Another signal has been the Saudi determination to preserve its foreign currency and this has been evident for example in the kingdom cutting off its money transfer pipeline to Lebanon.

The chain of events began when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman grounded an entire echelon of Saudi officials including Prince Alawaleed bin Talal, who is usually considered the keystone outside investor in the Murdoch media interests.

The intensity of the measures instituted by the Crown Prince indicates a determination to keep a firm and unchallenged grip on Saudi Arabia up to and during the Aramco flotation which is scheduled for 2018.

Aramco dates from before the Second World War and was originally a joint venture with the United States..

It was taken over entirely by the Desert Kingdom after the Yom Kippur war.

A curious footnote to Aramco is that oil in the Arabian peninsula was originally identified by a New Zealand mining engineer, Major Frank Holmes.

| From the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ||  Friday 17 November 2017   |||