Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) remains open for possible joint ventures provided the conditions are right, its Chief Financial Officer Mutlaq Al-Morished said Monday. “We are still looking for opportunities for joint ventures, and if the opportunity comes we will take it,” he said. “Those joint ventures, such as the Tianjin petrochemical complex with China's Sinopec, boost the firm's productivity,” he said. At news conference on Monday after Sunday's results undershot analysts' forecasts, SABIC also said it had no plans for a bond issue in the medium term. The firm delayed a planned dollar bond in May and instead raised SR8.25 billion ($2.2 billion) through two loans last month from state-run National Commercial Bank and Alinma Bank, in which the finance ministry's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the largest shareholder. PIF holds a 70 percent stake in SABIC. Shares in the world's biggest chemicals group by market value were down 1.4 percent at SR86.50 at 1000 GMT on Monday, trading for the first time since the results were released. “A recovery in Asian demand had supported petrochemical producers' margins, but inventories are now well stocked and with global sentiment weakening and product prices expected to fall, demand should also drop,” said a petrochemicals analyst who asked not to be identified. SABIC last year inaugurated the $2.7 billion industrial complex in Tianjin, a 50:50 joint venture between the Saudi petrochemical giant and Sinopec, also known as China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. The complex has production capacity of about 3.2 million tons a year of various petrochemical products. Demand for petrochemicals is rising rapidly in China as the country continues to boost its capacity to make plastic consumer goods for the domestic and international markets. SABIC said Sunday second-quarter net profit almost tripled to SR5.02 billion ($1.34 billion), from SR1.81 billion a year ago on higher sales and increased production. Analysts at Egypt's EFG-Hermes had expected SABIC to post a second-quarter net profit of SR5.5 billion, while analysts at Credit Suisse had penciled in a SR5 billion result. SABIC's output rose 6 percent in the second quarter of the year against the first three months, while sales increased 4 percent, Al Morished said, declining to give figures. “The growth in sales came mainly from Asia and the Middle East. Demand in the US is picking up, while in Europe it is stable,” Al Morished said. “The European debt crisis has been contained in the financial market and we did not see a major effect on the petrochemical market.” SABIC ‘s second-quarter net profit fell 8 percent compared with the previous quarter due to a decrease in the prices of major products, higher feedstock cost and higher prices of raw-materials for products of its steel unit Hadeed. “It is difficult to predict what will happen with feedstock prices in Saudi Arabia. We are not the government or the producer,” he said. SABIC buy feedstock such as ethane, a natural gas derivative commonly used in the production of petrochemicals, at a relatively cheap price in Saudi Arabia, giving producers in the Kingdom a competitive edge over many of their international peers, which often use naphtha, a crude oil derivative. SABIC reported a surprising net loss of SR974 million in the first quarter of 2009 - its first quarterly loss since 2001. Its net profit in the last quarter surged to SR5.43 billion on higher sales, production volumes and prices. Al Morished said the firm is not desperate to raise cash in the medium term and has about SR50 billion on its balance sheet.
