SABIC's net profit up 5.4%, revenue 15% higher on higher prices, volumes

摘要

SABIC on Sunday reported a 5.4% rise in frst-quarter net proft to 5.51 billion Saudi riyals ($1.47 billion) and a 7.2% rise in operating proft to SR8.94 billion, compared with the frst quarter of 2017. Revenue was up 15.0% to SR41.86 billion. The company attributes the rise in proftability to higher average selling prices and volumes sold. This is despite a SR1.1 billion charge in the frst quarter to cover restructuring costs which aim to reduce costs and improve productivity, the company said. Yousef al-Benyan, SABIC CEO told a press conference in Riyadh on Sunday that the company is study- ing plans to build plants in Africa and is considering three coun- tries for investments. SABIC also plans to build a headquarters in Houston for its western hemisphere operations to take advantage of the US shale gas boom. Benyan also said that SABIC is targeting several regions for potential M&A deals, including the US, Europe and China, as well as Africa. “We hope that by the end of this year something new will materialize,” he said. SABIC earlier this year acquired a 24.99% stake in Clariant to speed expansion of SABIC’s specialties portfolio. He said it was premature to discuss a possible increase in the stake. Clariant and SABIC plan to announce more details about their future collaboration in September. In November 2017 SABIC and Saudi Aramco signed an agreement to build one of the world’s largest oil-to-chemicals facilities at Yanbu on the Red Sea Coast. The partners last week awarded KBR a project manage- ment and front-end engineering design contract to develop the $20-billion project.