SABIC posts 11.9% rise in Q4 net profit

21 January 2008 03:07  [Source: ICIS news]

By Henni Abdelghani

DUBAI (ICIS news)--Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) posted late on Saturday a 11.9% rise in its fourth quarter net profit compared with the same period a year ago.

High petrochemical prices boosted its overall profit for 2007 to a record Saudi riyal (SR) 27bn ($7.2bn), up 33% from a year ago, the Saudi major said in a statement to the local exchange.

However, its fourth quarter net profit fell 7.16% to SR6.87bn compared with the third quarter of 2007, it added without giving reasons for the change.

The fourth quarter results also included revenue from subsidiary SABIC Innovative Plastics, a polycarbonate (PC) maker which SABIC bought from GE for $11.6bn last year.

New plants that came on stream at SABIC this year included a Jubail United Petrochemical’s ethylene glycol plant, urea and ammonia plants at Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co (Safco) and a reinforced steel plant at Saudi Iron & Steel Co (Hadeed).

Subsidiary Safco more than doubled its fourth quarter net profit to SR741.5m on high urea prices. Its 2007 net profit rose 92% to SR2.2bn as urea values reached $405/tonne.

Production was also added in the UK following its acquisition of Huntsman’s European base chemicals and polymers business.

SABIC Europe’s CEO Boy Litjens said earlier that its sales in 2007 will be greater than €8bn ($11.8bn), with the new assets in the UK, including the 865,000 tonne/year Wilton cracker and derivatives businesses contributing to its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).

($1=SR3.75/€0.68)

By: Abdelghani Henni
65 6780 4359

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