Saudi Aramco surpasses Apple; is now world’s most valued company

Riyadh: The market value of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has surpassed the American company Apple, making the Saudi oil giant the world’s top-valued company.

This came after the company’s share rose to 46.20 riyals, bringing the market value to $2.464 trillion (9.24 trillion riyals), while Apple was valued at $2.461 trillion.

According to Bloomberg, the market value of Apple reached its peak on January 4 at $2.960 trillion, but it has remained on a downward path since then, losing nearly $484 billion, while high oil prices supported Aramco’s prospects.

Saudi Aramco is scheduled to announce its financial results for the first quarter of 2022 next Sunday, May 15, in light of expectations of achieving strong profits, taking advantage of the strong oil price gains since the beginning of this year, which increased its pace since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The shares of the Saudi company continue to reap gains; due to the fluctuation of oil prices, in parallel with setting a date for the delivery of free Aramco shares to its shareholders.

The profits of the Saudi company rose for the year 2021 to the highest level since its inclusion in the Saudi financial market, due to the rise in oil prices.

Net profit amounted to 412.4 billion riyals ($109.95 billion) for 2021, a growth of 124.4% compared to 2020.

Aramco announced the distribution of cash dividends to shareholders of 70.33 billion riyals ($18.75 billion) for the fourth quarter of 2021, in addition to a recommendation from the board of directors to capitalize 15 billion riyals ($4 billion) of the remaining profits and grant each 10 shares a bonus share.

Here’s the list of 10 largest companies around the world in terms of market capitalization: