Russia on amazing journey with Saudi Arabia, RDIF says

Naseem Zeitoon | Reuters

(2nd R-L) Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Qatar’s Energy Minister Mohammad bin Saleh al-Sada, Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and Venezuela’s Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino attend a joint news conference following their meeting in Doha, Qatar February 16, 2016.

This week, Dmitriev signaled Russia’s keen interest in investing in Saudi Arabia’s planned initial public offering (IPO) of its state energy giant Aramco, set to be the largest in the world. He told the media on Thursday that the RDIF could set up a “significant consortium” of Russian banks and investors for the IPO, which the Saudi government believes could be valued at $2 trillion.

“All we can say is that Aramco is a great company, really managed incredibly well, very successful,” Dmitriev said. “So there is major interest from investors all over the world, including from investors in Russia and China, and we know that lots of people would like to participate, and as more information emerges on the IPO, there will be major investor interest in it.”

Asked where he thought Aramco might be listed — President Donald Trump has expressed his interest in a listing on the Nasdaq — the investment chief said that was up to Aramco, adding, “All we can say is it’s a great company.”

Dmitriev did not mention the fact that Saudi Arabia and Russia remain on opposite sides of the Syrian civil war, where the Kremlin supports Saudi’s regional arch-rival, Iran. They also provide varying levels of support for opposing sides of the conflict in Yemen. During King Salman’s October meeting in Moscow, the monarch told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Iran had to stop meddling in regional affairs.

Dmitriev kept his focus, rather, on recent economic success stories between the two powers.

“Through economic diplomacy, by working on business together, we were able to reach a major breakthrough in politics, and frankly we had many disagreements with Saudi Arabia on politics before,” Dmitriev described. “But now they’re much fewer and we’re definitely in a very positive territory in the relationship.”