Malaysia's Petronas says will not participate in Aramco IPO

Malaysian state energy company Petronas said on Friday it will not participate in Saudi Aramco's initial public offering, expected to be the world's biggest share sale.

Aramco plans to sell 1.5% of the company in the offering, looking to raise up to $25.6 billion and giving the company a potential market value of between $1.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion.

Earlier this month, Petronas had said it was approached by Aramco to participate in the Saudi oil giant's listing.

"Petronas would like to confirm that after due consideration, the company has decided not to participate in Saudi Aramco's initial public offering exercise," Petronas said in an emailed statement.

Petronas and Aramco have a joint venture in a $27 billion refinery and petrochemicals complex in southern Malaysia that is set to start commercial operations this year.

Aramco kicked off the sale process on Nov. 3 after a series of false starts. The deal is crucial for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to raise billions of dollars to invest in non-oil industries, create employment and diversify the world's top crude exporter away from oil.

So far, no major state company or fund has publicly said they will take part in the Aramco IPO.

Aramco's IPO has attracted about 73 billion riyals ($19.47 billion) in institutional and retail orders so far, Saudi Arabia's Samba Financial Group said on Thursday.

Institutional subscriptions amounted to 58.4 billion riyals and 1.82 billion subscribed shares, it said.