19/04/2011
SABIC posts SR7.7bn profit
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) reported a 42 percent rise in first-quarter net profit as it increased production and sales, it said on Monday, beating analysts forecasts.
Saudi Arabia's biggest petrochemical company said in a statement on the Kingdom's bourse website net profit reached SR7.7 billion in the three months through March, compared with 5.4 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected the firm to post, on average, SR6.2 billion riyals for the first quarter.
SABIC said its operational profit increased by 29 percent in the quarter compared with a year before to SR12.2 billion.
The earnings were released after trading on the Saudi bourse closed, with SABIC shares down 0.7 percent, underperforming a 0.02 percent rise in the Saudi market as a whole.
