In this Sept. 25, 1990 file photo, oil pipelines snake through the port area of the Aramco facility at Ras Tannura, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: AP)

RIYADH, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Oil Company Aramco has priced its initial public offering at 8.53 US dollars per share, making it the largest IPO ever, Arab News reported on Thursday.

At that level, Aramco has a market valuation of 1.7 trillion US dollars, overtaking Apple as the world's most valuable listed firm.

The offering generated subscriptions of 106 billion US dollars by institutional investors and together with the total demand from individual investors, the order book hit 119 billion US dollars, the report highlighted.

The state-owned oil giant said it would retain the option of an even larger offering of a 3.45 billion share sale, worth 29.4 billion US dollars.