Aramco rolls with the Covid punches

The Saudi heavyweight posts an eye-watering drop in profits but pays its dividends and remains in the black

State-controlled Saudi Aramco posted financial results for 2020 that illustrate the robustness of its operations, despite giving up—at least for now—its title as the world’s most profitable company to tech giant Apple. And it is already making plans to implement its pandemic-interrupted production growth strategy. During a 22 March earnings call, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser hailed the “flexibility and agility” of his firm in the wake of the “unprecedented” challenges posed by Covid-19. Despite a $39bn year-on-year reduction in net income, Aramco posted a $49bn profit, fulfilled its $75bn dividend obligation to shareholders and ended 2020 with nearly $8bn more cash in the bank than it had at the s