Chemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp. expects sales and earnings to increase this year after it beat analysts’ estimates by making a profit in 2020.
The Riyadh-based firm, controlled by Saudi Aramco, said it sees the global rollout of coronavirus vaccines leading to a 2% to 5% gain in revenue this year. Pretax income will be “moderately higher” than in 2020, while capital expenditure will be similar, Sabic said in a results statement.
Sabic earned net income of 40 million riyals ($10.7 million) in 2020, down sharply from 5.2 billion riyals in 2019. Still, analysts expected a loss of almost 300 million riyals, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, after the pandemic caused demand for chemicals products to sink.
Sabic’s net income between October and December was 2.2 billion riyals, more than double the figure for the third quarter.
“The fourth quarter benefited from sustained economic recovery,” said Chief Executive Officer Yousef Al-Benyan. “Distributing competitive dividends to our shareholders continues to be paramount and this is supported by our firm commitment to maintaining capital discipline, as well as our ability to uphold a strong balance sheet and credit rating.”
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