MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco is in advanced talks to acquire a roughly 20% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd's oil refining and chemicals business for about USD20 billion to USD25 billion in Aramco's shares, said Reuters.
An agreement could be reached as soon as the coming weeks, according to the report, which cited people with knowledge of the matter. Aramco and Reliance declined to comment.
Reliance announced a sale of a 20% stake in its oil-to-chemicals business to Aramco for USD15 billion in 2019, but the deal stalled after oil prices and demand crashed last year due to the pandemic.
During Aramco's earnings briefing earlier in August, Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said the company was still doing due diligence on the deal.
In late June, Reliance's billionaire chairman Mukesh Ambani said it hopes to formalise its partnership with Aramco this year and its Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan will join the Indian conglomerate's board as an independent director.
Reliance managing director Mukesh Ambani had said in late June that discussions were ongoing with Saudi Aramco and that a deal is expected to be finalized before the end of 2021.
RIL had in 2019 announced its interest to sell 20% stake in the company’s flagship chemicals and refining business to Saudi Aramco in a deal valued at USD15 billion. Last fiscal, RIL carved out its oil-to-chemicals business into a separate entity, to facilitate onboarding of strategic partners like Aramco.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company produces polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and other petrochemical products.
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