Saudi petrochem giant Sabic's profit falls short as product prices decline

Saudi Basic Industries reported full-year and fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts estimates as the average selling price for products from the Middle East’s biggest petrochemicals maker dropped.

Full-year profit rose 17% to 21.54bn riyals ($5.7bn), compared with the mean estimate of 23.67bn riyals. Fourth-quarter profit declined 12% to 3.24bn riyals compared with an estimate of 5.29bn riyals.

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Sabic, as the company is known, and Switzerland’s Clariant AG are discussing how to combine their specialty chemicals businesses, Yousef Abdullah Al Benyan, the Saudi company’s chief executive officer, told reporters in Riyadh.

Key numbers

• FY sales 169.09 billion riyals, estimate 169.68 billion (range 167.41 billion to 172.38 billion) (data compiled by Bloomberg)
• 4Q sales 40.13 billion riyals, estimate 40.41 billion (range 38.8 billion to 42.4 billion) (data compiled by Bloomberg)
• Cites increase in selling, general and administrative expenses, and decrease in share of results from associates and joint ventures.
• Implemented strategic restructuring initiative with an impact of 1.1 billion riyals.