Dubai: Saudi Aramco appointed former HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver to the oil firm's board as part of a reshuffle.
HSBC has had close ties to the kingdom for decades. The bank was the only international adviser to hold a senior role on Aramco's 2019 initial public offering, the world's largest. In addition to having one of the largest investment banking teams in the kingdom through its Saudi unit, HSBC also owns 31% of Saudi British Bank, the fifth largest lender in the country. Gulliver replaces Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, who had been on the board since 2007.
Joining Gulliver on the board will be former Aramco Chief Financial Officer Khalid al-Dabbagh, who helped lead the company through the IPO. Al-Dabbagh, who stepped down as CFO last week, replaces Nabeel Al Amudi, former Transport Minister and currently CEO of Olayan Financing Company.
The appointments bring two people with finance backgrounds onto the board of the world's biggest oil producer as it embarks on a strategy of looking for new ways to raise money from its assets. Aramco raised $12.4 billion earlier this year from the sale of a stake in a subsidiary that holds leasing rights over its oil pipelines, and is also planning to do a similar sale related to its gas pipelines, people familiar told Bloomberg. The company is also conducting a review of its upstream assets that could result in it bringing in foreign investors, Bloomberg reported in April.
