Saudi Arabia's oil company Aramco has begun trading for the first time, gaining 10% in its first moments on the market in a dramatic debut that pushed its value to $1.88 trillion, higher than any other listed company in the world.
The state-owned oil giant started trading on the Saudi Tadawul stock exchange in Riyadh after a 25.6 billion dollar (£19.5 billion) initial public offering that set the record as the biggest in history.
Aramco, owned by the state, has sold a 1.5% stake, pricing its shares before trading at 32 Saudi riyals (£6.50).
READ MORE: Sir Brian Souter to step down as Stagecoach chairman
At a pre-trading auction earlier in the morning, bids for Aramco reached the 10% limit on stock price fluctuation allowed by Tadawul.
That pushed the price of Aramco shares to 35.2 riyals (£7.14).
This makes Aramco more valuable than Microsoft or Apple, two of the top listed companies in the world.
It is also worth more than the top five oil companies - Exxon Mobil, Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and BP - combined.
Aramco is selling 0.5% of its shares to individual retail investors - most of whom are Saudi nationals - and 1% to institutional investors, most of which are Saudi or Gulf-based funds.
Only Saudi citizens, residents of Saudi Arabia or nationals of Gulf Arab states were permitted to buy Aramco shares as individual investors.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman plans to use the money raised from the sale of a sliver of the kingdom's crown jewel to diversify the country's economy and fund major national projects that create jobs for the millions of young Saudis entering the workforce.
The head of savings and investment business LV= is to leave the company at the end of the year.
Richard Rowney's departure after 13 years with the firm comes just months after he oversaw the sale of LV's general insurance division to Allianz.
READ MORE: Retired plumber calls for political action on pension debts
Chairman Alan Cook will take over the running of the Bournemouth-based business while a replacement is sought, with an announcement due before the end of the year.
Mr Cook said: "The board and Richard have agreed that the time is right for him to step down.
"As managing director life and pensions, he turned LV= into one of the UK's leading specialist retirement and protection providers.
"Most recently, as chief executive he led the sale of LV='s general insurance business and the process to convert from a friendly society to a company limited by guarantee."
READ MORE: Robert Morris creates new £32m business park on former furniture factory site
Mr Rowney said: "After 13 memorable years with LV= and the successful sale of our General Insurance business to Allianz, now felt like the appropriate time to step aside and seek a new opportunity outside of the society."
Former Superdry chief Euan Sutherland has been appointed chief executive of over-50s favourite Saga.
The executive, who also ran Co-op, will start his new job in the new year, taking over from Lance Batchelor, who announced plans to quit earlier this year.
Mr Sutherland said: "I am hugely excited to join Saga.
"This is a unique British brand that has a strong heritage, great people and significant potential.
"I look forward to working with the board and the whole of the Saga team to further unlock this potential and deliver for our customers and shareholders."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article