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Riyadh: Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) said second-quarter net profit rose 16.5 per cent to a record after it consolidated earnings of GE's plastics unit and raised sales amid a global economic slowdown.
Sabic made a net profit of 7.54 billion riyals ($2.02 billion) in the three months to June 30 compared with 6.47 billion riyals in the second quarter of 2007, it said in a statement on the website of the Saudi Arabian stock exchange.
The earnings came near the top of analysts' forecasts who were betting on second-quarter net profit of between 7.16 billion riyals and 7.63 billion riyals, according to a Reuters survey last month.
"The second quarter witnessed the highest profit the company achieved in a single quarter since its inception," the company said in the statement, quoting Sabic's chief executive Mohammad Al Mady. It said operating profit reached 23 billion riyals in the six months to June 30, 2008, up 20 per cent from the year-earlier period.
Operating income
Compared to the first quarter, annual growth of operating profit almost doubled to 26.7 per cent in the second-quarter to reach 12.1 billion riyals, based on Reuters calculations and Sabic's financial data.
Turnover in the first half reached 83 billion riyals, up 54 per cent from the same period of 2007, it added. "This is mainly due to the consolidation of Sabic Innovative Plastics (formerly GE Plastics)... to an improvement in sale prices of most key products and increases in the volume of production and sales ... in spite of a rise in ... prices of oil and a slowdown in the major part of the world's economies," Mady added.
Sabic, also the Gulf's largest steel maker, increased sales volume by 6 per cent in the first half against a five per cent rise in the volume of production.
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