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Dubai, Jan 12: Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco announced Sunday that its initial public offering raised a record $29.4 billion, a figure higher than previously announced, after the company used a so-called "greenshoe option" to sell millions more shares to meet investor demand.

The company said that the sale of an additional 450 million shares took place during the initial public offering process.

The oil and gas company, which is majority owned by the state, began publicly trading on the local Saudi Tadawul exchange on December 11. It hit hit upwards of $10 a share on the second day of trading. This gave Aramco a market capitalization of $2 trillion, making it comfortably the world's most valuable company.

Aramco's additional sales mean the company has publicly floated 1.7% of its shares. It's IPO, even before the added sales, was the world's largest ever.

The shares sold in the over-allotment option "had been allocated to investors during the book-building process and therefore, no additional shares are being offered into the market today," Aramco said.

Company shares traded down on Sunday, dipping to around 34.7 riyals, or $9.25 a share, amid heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf between Iran and the United States. Aramco was a target of rising tensions over the summer when a missile and drone attack, which Saudi Arabia and the US blame on Iran, temporarily halved its production.

Sunday's trading figures value Aramco at $1.85 trillion, still well ahead of Apple, the second largest company in the world after Aramco, but below the $2 trillion mark sought by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Dubai, May 5: A Saudi ministerial decision issued on Monday allows companies in the private sector to reduce salaries by 40 per cent and allows termination of contracts owing to the economic hardships resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to daily newspaper Al Sharq Awsat.

The new decision was still not published by the cabinet according to the newspaper.

The decision which the newspaper saw a copy of was signed by Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development to regulate the labour contract in the current period, allows employers to reduce the employees salaries by 40 percent of the actual effective wage for a period of 6 months, in proportion to the hours of work and allowing the termination of employee contract after 6 months of the COVID-19 circumstances.

The new decision has also included a provision in which the employer would be allowed to cut wages even he or she benefits from the subsidy provided by the goverment, such as those for helping pay workers wages or exemption from government fees.

The decision also stressed that employers are not allowed to terminate any employee, unless three conditions are met.

1.            First the passing of six months since the measures of salary cut has been taken

2.            Reducing pay, annual leave and exceptional leave were all used

3.            Company proves that its facing financial troubles due to the circumstances.

The memo, which goes into affect as soon as its published in the government’s official newspaper, ensures that the employee will receive his/her salary if on annual leave within the period of 6 months.