Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) on Sunday posted it results for the full-year 2018, noting a rise on the back of higher sales volumes and a restructuring initiative.
In 2018, SABIC’s net profit after Zakat and tax grew 16.87% year-on-year to SAR 21.54 billion ($5.74 billion) from SAR 18.43 billion ($4.91 billion).
SABIC attributed its annual profit growth to a rise in average selling prices and sales volumes, added to a having executed a strategic restructuring initiative that trimmed total costs by SAR 1.1 billion.
Sales increased by 12.9% to SAR 169.09 billion from SAR 149.77 billion in 2017, SABIC said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).
Total profit amounted to SAR 57.66 billion, up 15.53% year-on-year, while operating profits jumped 25.26% to SAR 36.33 billion from SAR 33 billion in 2017, the firm revealed.
Total shareholders’ equity, after deducting minority interest, was SAR 173.11 billion in 2018 against SAR 163.92 billion in the previous year.
Earnings per share (EPS) amounted to SAR 7.18 in 2018 versus SAR 6.14 in 2017, SABIC highlighted.
As for the fourth quarter of 2018, SABIC logged SAR 3.24 billion in net profit after Zakat and tax, registering a decline of 12.43% from SAR 3.7 billion in Q4-17.
The mega petrochemical maker noted the decline was due to lower in average selling prices and a decrease in the share of results from associates and joint ventures, SABIC’s statement indicated.
Sales slipped by 0.5% year-on-year to SAR 40.13 billion in Q4-18 from SAR 40.33 billion, while total profit declined 1.84% to SAR 12.24 billion and operating profit fell 1.07% to SAR 6.5 billion from SAR 6.57 billion in Q4-17.
Since mid-2018, news reports emerged that Saudi Aramco was looking to acquire a stake in SABIC. Last week, sources said that the oil producer was seeking advisers for a mega loan to be used to finance the potential acquisition in SABIC, while Aramco CEO Amin Nasser confirmed that his company was pushing ahead with the acquisition.
The deadline for the proposals was set to Monday, 28 January, the sources had said, whereas earlier reports indicated that Aramco was considering borrowing up to $50 billion for the deal.
Reports of the potential acquisition emerged in July last year, when Aramco revealed beginning discussions with the Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to acquire a majority stake of up to 70% in SABIC. A short while after, Aramco named US-based banks JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley as financial advisers for the potential acquisition, noting that it may enter the global bond market for the first time ever in order to finance the SABIC deal.
In July, Aramco said that it had begun discussions with the state-owned PIF to buy a stake in the SABIC. A week later, it announced hiring US-based banks JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley as financial advisers for its potential acquisition which could make up as much as 70% of chemical producer SABIC. Aramco had also said it may enter the global bond market for the first time ever in order to finance the SABIC deal.
