MOSCOW (MRC) -- Boubyan Petrochemical Co. (BPC) has sold its entire stake of 3,326,371 shares in Saudi Aramco for 126 million Saudi riyals, reporyed Chemweek with reference to the company's regulatory filing.
BPC, a shareholder in Equate and Kuwait Olefins Co., said it generated a profit of KWD1.6 million (USD5.3 million) from the share sale, which will be reflected in the company’s third-quarter results ending 31 January 2020. BPC bought the shares in Aramco for SR106.44 million.
BPC is a shareholding company created for the purpose of investing in Kuwait government–owned petrochemicals sector. The company holds 9% in Equate, a joint venture in which government-owned Petrochemical Industries Co. and Dow have 42.5% each and Qurain Petrochemical Industry has 6%.
BPC decided to cash in its shareholding in Aramco soon after the latter debuted on the Riyadh stock exchange. Shares in Aramco started trading on 11 December. Saudi Arabia sold 3 billion shares in Aramco, equivalent to 1.5% of the company’s share capital, subsequently increased to 3.45 billion shares, or 1.725% of the share capital, via the greenshoe option. The offering generated USD29.4 billion, making it the world’s largest IPO.
On 13 December, Aramco share price of SAR36.80, on the third day of trading, has risen 15% above the launch price, valuing the entire company at USD1.98 trillion, very close to the USD2 trillion originally targeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Apart from a few hedge funds, who saw the opportunity for a quick profit, investors outside Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf region largely abstained from the IPO. A survey of 31 major institutions carried out by the brokerage firm, Stanford C. Bernstein, and reported in Fortune magazine, for instance, showed they value the company at an average of only USD1.26 trillion. Analysts outside the region cite reports that wealthy Saudi families and individuals were pressured into supporting the issue, and that government itself, through the Saudi Public Pension Fund, among others, also pumped money into it. They note that if continued pressure from low oil prices forces Riyadh to monetize more of its Aramco holding - via, for instance, a share sale to the Chinese government or its proxies or a second issue on an international stock exchange - it would be in Riyadh's interest to have the highest possible Aramco share price as a base valuation.
As MRC informed before, Saudi Aramco, which temporarily lost half of its oil production following the September 14 attacks on two key oil facilities, is running its local refineries at full capacity and is forging ahead with plans to start up new refineries. The company is also starting up a joint venture refinery in Malaysia next year. According to Aramco's bond prospectus released in April, the refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas - the Malaysian national oil company - collectively known as PRefChem, was supposed to start this year.
The PRefChem joint venture includes a 300,000 b/d refinery, an integrated steam cracker with capacity to produce 1.3 million mt of ethylene located in Johor, Malaysia. Aramco was supposed to provide a significant portion of PRefChem's crude supply under a long-term supply agreement. Jazan and PrefChem will help Aramco reach a gross refining capacity of 5.6 million b/d, it said in the prospectus. The company currently owns and has stakes in four refineries abroad with a total refining capacity exceeding 2 million b/d.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
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