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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries
Corp (SABIC) said on Thursday it had agreed to sell its agri-nutrients
business to Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co (SAFCO), in which it owns a 43% stake,
reported Reuters.
SAFCO will
finance the acquisition by issuing 59.4 million shares, valued at 10 riyals
each, to SABIC, raising the fertilizer group’s overall share capital by 14.25%
to 4.76 billion riyals (USD1.27 bln).
“The deal is a clear strategic
attempt to create a national champion and a global leader in agrinutrients,”
SABIC Chief Executive Yousef al-Benyan told reporters in a virtual press
conference.
SABIC had been seeking to consolidate its various holdings in
companies specializing in agri-nutrient, or fertilizer, production, and signed a
preliminary deal with SAFCO to divest the resulting combined business in Nov.
2018.
After the acquisition the business will take the name SABIC
Agri-nutrient Investments.
The deal would allow SABIC to focus on its
expansion in petrochemical products, and SAFCO to become more specialised in
fertilisers and phosphate.
SABIC, the world’s fourth-largest chemicals
company, which is 70% owned by oil giant Saudi Aramco, is looking to divest
businesses seen as non-core.
“The new company will become the investment
arm for SABIC on agribusiness and will create more synergies on assets,” Benyan
said.
As MRC informed
previously, in early November, 2020, SABIC announced that BOPP film based on
the company’s certified circular PP from feedstock recycling of used plastics
will be introduced in primary pet food brand packaging by Mars.
According
to MRC's ScanPlast
report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the
nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus
imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply
increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
Saudi Basic Industries
Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The
company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene,
polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and
fertilizers. |
