{"id":94939,"date":"2025-03-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/04\/can-aramco-sustain-its-hefty-payouts-pifs-ma-strategy-in-the-spotlight\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T00:00:00","slug":"can-aramco-sustain-its-hefty-payouts-pifs-ma-strategy-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/04\/can-aramco-sustain-its-hefty-payouts-pifs-ma-strategy-in-the-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Aramco sustain its hefty payouts? + PIF\u2019s M&A strategy in the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aramco\u2019s dividend decision \u2014 set to be announced today \u2014 is getting ink from <\/strong>Bloomberg<\/a><\/strong>, as the company\u2019s distributions have outpaced earnings, flipping it to net debt from a net liquid position of over USD 27 bn a year ago.<\/p>\n

More debt might be necessary: <\/strong>The Kingdom may need to issue another USD 5-6 bn in bonds this year to help cover the gap, adding to its nearly USD 15 bn in bond sales so far \u2014 making it the biggest borrower in emerging markets, Pinebridge Investments analyst Samsara Wang told the business news outlet.<\/p>\n

No special dividends this year?<\/strong> Aramco will only pay its special (performance-linked) dividend if there is enough freecash flow left after covering its base dividend and investments, Bloomberg said. Analysts expect<\/a> cashflow to fall below the base dividend next year, leaving little room for extra distributions.<\/p>\n

REMEMBER-<\/strong> Aramco is expected to maintain its dividend payout<\/a> at SAR 116.5 bn (USD 31.1 bn) for 4Q 2024, the same as the preceding three quarters, to bring its total dividends for the year to SAR 466 bn (USD 124.3 bn). Aramco\u2019s net income dipped 15.4% y-o-y to SAR 103.4 bn (USD 27.6 bn) in 3Q 2024<\/a>, while revenues fell 1.8% to SAR 416.6 bn, with the oil giant attributing the drop in its bottom line to falling crude prices and weaker refining margins.<\/p>\n

ALSO-<\/strong> The PIF\u2019s recent surge in M&A activity across various sectors was also in the spotlight in a Bloomberg<\/a> report yesterday. The piece breaks down the fund\u2019s strategy of using capital to attract foreign firms in order to boost local development, with high profile agreements including snapping up a minority stake in Dazn<\/a>, the USD 4.9 bn acquisition of Scopely<\/a>, and Alat<\/a> \u2019s purchase of 15% of TK Elevator. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kingdom may need to issue another USD 5-6 bn in bonds to cover the gap<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2561],"tags":[139,10,1151,229],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-94939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saudi-in-the-news","tag-aramco","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-public-investment-fund-pif","tag-saudi-in-the-news","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"f258ae45-7079-4982-8554-3a42fe67145e","order":"9","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2024\/7\/1788.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Can Aramco sustain its hefty payouts? + PIF\u2019s M&A strategy in the spotlight","related_issue":[94923],"teaser":"The Kingdom may need to issue another USD 5-6 bn in bonds to cover the gap","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/3\/.3d3cc0c9-0814-4949-94b4-44284f273cbc.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nCan Aramco sustain its hefty payouts? + PIF\u2019s M&A strategy in the spotlight - KSA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/04\/can-aramco-sustain-its-hefty-payouts-pifs-ma-strategy-in-the-spotlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Aramco sustain its hefty payouts? + PIF\u2019s M&A strategy in the spotlight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Kingdom may need to issue another USD 5-6 bn in bonds to cover the gap\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/04\/can-aramco-sustain-its-hefty-payouts-pifs-ma-strategy-in-the-spotlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KSA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-04T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2024\/7\/1788.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/04\/can-aramco-sustain-its-hefty-payouts-pifs-ma-strategy-in-the-spotlight\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/04\/can-aramco-sustain-its-hefty-payouts-pifs-ma-strategy-in-the-spotlight\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"enterpriseam admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d\"},\"headline\":\"Can Aramco sustain its hefty payouts? 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