SABIC to invest $3-10 bln in acquisitions over 5 years

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is planning to invest $3-10 billion in acquisition deals over the next five years in the specialties and agri-nutrients sectors, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing chief executive, Yousef Al-Benyan. 

The petrochemical giant is studying two potential deals in the specialties business, and a final decision may be taken by Q2 2018.

SABIC will also decide on an investment in a Texas petrochemical complex, in partnership with ExxonMobil, by the end of next year, Al-Benyan added.

Meanwhile, SABIC’s specialties unit aims to double its profit in the next five years as it seeks to position itself as one of the biggest specialty chemical players globally, Ernesto Occhiello, executive vice president of SABIC’s specialties business, told ICIS on the sidelines of the 12th Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) Forum in Dubai.

“Our goal… is to close to double our profit over the next five years, purely from organic growth… we don’t look at volumes, revenues. We look at profit,” he said.

The core engineering plastics segment will drive the unit’s profitability over the next five years, but the main challenge to grow the specialties unit is time, Occhiello added.

The specialty chemicals’ revenues come mostly from three key manufacturing regions – North America, Europe and Northeast Asia.

Occhiello ruled out plans to build any production units at the newly-unveiled crude to chemicals complex planned between Saudi Aramco and SABIC.

“We may build a plant there because there could be a specific advantage…, but the essence of the oil to chemicals [project] is to provide competitive advantage to the broader SABIC business and more specifically petrochemicals,” Occhiello added.