US President Donald Trump personally lobbied Saudi King Salman to list the Saudi Arabian Oil Company on the New York Stock Exchange during a phone call on Saturday, according to a readout provided by the White House.
The call, which came as the president flew from Honolulu to Tokyo, followed the president tweeting his hope that the listing would occur on a US exchange, raising the political stakes for what would be the largest initial public offering, Bloomberg reported.
“Important to the United States!” Trump said in the Twitter post from Honolulu early Saturday.
Trump’s tweet, sent hours before he was set to depart for an 11-day tour of Asia, came out of the blue for Aramco, according to a person familiar with the company, who asked not to be named.
But the move is consistent with a growing push by American regulators to lure companies to US stock exchanges.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the call that he was motivated to send the tweet because the Aramco IPO “will be just about the biggest ever” and the US wants “to have all the big listings”. The Saudis were not currently looking at listing on a US exchange “because of litigation risk, and other risk, which is sad”, he said.
“I want them to very strongly consider the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ or frankly anybody else located in this country,” Trump said.
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