Aramco dethrones Apple as world’s most valuable public company

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There a new player holding the title of world’s most valuable company.
Photo: NikolayFrolochkin/Pixabay CC

Apple just lost the title of world’s most valuable publicly traded company. But not because it had a terrible day on the stock market. The change happened when Aramco, a huge Saudi Arabian oil company, went from private to public.

Not anything Apple did

Apple had a good day on the stock market. It closed up $2.29 to $270.77, giving it a market capitalization of $1.22 trillion, slightly ahead of Microsoft at $1.16 trillion.

But oil producer Aramco ended its debut day with a market capitalization of $1.88 trillion, up 10%. Now the question is, how long will it be before the world’s most valuable publicly traded company passes the $2 trillion mark?

Aramco also made far more money than Apple last year, with $111 billion in income. The iPhone-maker’s income for its 2018 financial year hit $59.5 billion.

Still, Apple became the first publicly traded company in the world to hit the trillion-dollar mark last year. It dropped below that mark for a while, then surpassed it again a few months ago.

More about Aramco, the world’s most valuable company

Aramco is the only oil company allowed to operate in Saudi Arabia, and until now has been owned completely by the government and the royal family.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s somewhat controversial ruler, took this enterprise public to raise funds to diversify the Saudi Arabian economy. As it stands now, it’s entirely dependent on oil.

Via: Sydney Morning Herald

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