Saudi Aramco receives record demand for debut bond

Saudi Aramco received more than $100 billion in orders for its maiden global bond.

The bond sale is set to be the largest-ever in emerging markets and one of just a handful of times that a company anywhere in the world received more than $100 billion in bids for a debt offer, Bloomberg reported.

Having swelled to over $100 billion during the sale process, demand appeared to be the largest ever for emerging markets bonds, fund managers said, surpassing order book value of more than $52 billion for Qatar’s $12 billion deal last year, $67 billion for Saudi Arabia’s inaugural issue in 2016 and $69 billion orders for Argentina’s $16.5 billion trade that year.

Bond issue seen as a gauge of potential interest in eventual IPO, according to analysts.