Bending London’s listing rules to win Saudi favour smacks of desperation

Now here’s a tricky question. The world’s largest oil company, potentially worth six times as much as ExxonMobil and ten times as much as Royal Dutch Shell, wants to list its shares on a major stock exchange next year, and has indicated that the choice is between London and New York. The company’s initial public offering of just 5 per cent of its shares promises a $100 billion deal that will generate a fee bonanza for bankers, lawyers and PR men in the chosen marketplace, with several more tranches to come. Clearly London should go all-out to win this lucrative and prestigious piece of business, which would reconfirm the City’s pre-eminent place in the financial world. But the company is Aramco and its owners, the Saudi royal family, are leveraging their power as Middle East and Opec kingpins to demand special treatment, as they always do. Just how far should we bend over to accommodate them?

‘Touch your toes, boys,’ seems to be the answer from the Financial Conduct Authority, led by the Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey.