The Saudi Aramco oil company has raised a record $ 25.6 billion as a result of an initial public offering (IPO). Its shares on the stock exchange in Riyadh traded Thursday at 32 riyals per unit along the upper border of the designated price corridor, DW reported.

Thus, it has become the most expensive public company in the world: with a cost of $ 1.7 trillion. During the IPO, Aramco surpassed the fundraising rate reached by Chinese retailer Ali Baba on Wall Street in 2014. Then the Chinese concern managed to raise $ 25 billion.

The public offering of Aramco shares is central to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan for a massive economic restructuring called Vision 2030. The goal of this plan is to make Saudi Arabia less dependent on oil. It was originally planned that Aramco will go public on the stock exchange in 2017.