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Saudi SABIC Expected to Achieve $1.2 Billion in Profits in 2024

SABIC Manufacturing Site in Jubail, Saudi Arabia (Company's Website)
SABIC Manufacturing Site in Jubail, Saudi Arabia (Company's Website)
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Saudi SABIC Expected to Achieve $1.2 Billion in Profits in 2024

SABIC Manufacturing Site in Jubail, Saudi Arabia (Company's Website)
SABIC Manufacturing Site in Jubail, Saudi Arabia (Company's Website)

Economic analysts expect Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) to achieve a net profit of approximately $258 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, bringing its total annual earnings to around $1.2 billion. However, the petrochemical sector continues to face challenges, including declining global demand, rising operational costs, and shrinking profit margins.

SABIC, one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, returned to profitability in the third quarter of 2024, reporting $266 million in profits compared to a $765 million loss in the same period of 2023. The company is set to announce its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024 in a press conference on Wednesday.

According to Dr. Suleiman Al-Humaid Al-Khalidi, a financial analyst and member of the Saudi Economic Association, SABIC’s expected fourth-quarter profit of $258 million (SAR969 million) marks a significant recovery from its $500 million (SAR1.7 billion) loss in the same quarter of 2023.

He noted that the company performed better in 2024, recording a nine-month profit of $915 million (SAR3.43 billion) compared to a $373 million (SAR1.40 billion) loss in the same period of 2023.

Despite its stock price declining from a high of SAR139 in 2022 to SAR65 on Monday, SABIC has continued to distribute dividends. This resilience is attributed to increased operational income, reduced losses from discontinued operations, and lower zakat expenses.

Al-Khalidi highlighted key factors influencing SABIC’s financial performance, including fluctuations in petrochemical prices, global market volatility, and rising raw material and operational costs, all of which impact profit margins.

He stressed the importance of expanding into emerging markets, increasing global market share, investing in green technologies, diversifying its product portfolio, and forming strategic partnerships to enhance competitiveness.

Mohammed Hamdi Omar, CEO of G-World Research, emphasized that commodity price fluctuations and varying demand for petrochemical products will affect SABIC’s fourth-quarter results.

He noted that market conditions, particularly oil prices and supply chain dynamics, will play a crucial role in shaping the company’s financial performance. Despite rising operational costs, SABIC is expected to maintain or improve profit margins, with its core business units—basic chemicals, intermediates, and polymers—playing a key role.

SABIC’s third-quarter 2024 profit of $267 million (SAR 1 billion) was driven by higher gross profit margins, despite increased operational costs. Gains from selling its functional forms business, foreign exchange differences, and reduced losses from discontinued operations, particularly the revaluation of Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed), also contributed. However, finance income declined due to the revaluation of equity derivatives.

Despite market challenges, analysts believe SABIC’s focus on efficiency, cost management, and strategic expansion will help it navigate the volatile petrochemical sector in 2024.

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Turkish Companies ‘Paying the Bill’ as Political Crisis Roils Economy

Cats watch as fishermen gather their catch at Besiktas neighborhood in Istanbul on March 28, 2024. (AFP)
Cats watch as fishermen gather their catch at Besiktas neighborhood in Istanbul on March 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Turkish Companies ‘Paying the Bill’ as Political Crisis Roils Economy

Cats watch as fishermen gather their catch at Besiktas neighborhood in Istanbul on March 28, 2024. (AFP)
Cats watch as fishermen gather their catch at Besiktas neighborhood in Istanbul on March 28, 2024. (AFP)

Turmoil unleashed by the arrest of Türkiye’s leading opposition figure last week has sent shockwaves through the private sector, forcing companies to rethink strategy and dig in for a period of uncertainty and potential economic instability.

The detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who leads long-serving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in some polls, has provoked the largest anti-government protests in a decade, leading to mass arrests and international condemnation.

The move also sent the lira currency to a record low, fueling a sell-off of Turkish assets that has destabilized company balance sheets and driven up already high borrowing costs.

Company officials told Reuters that Turkish businesses across sectors were scrambling to reassess risk, with some already pausing planned investments and slashing budgets.

"The industrialists now have to pay the bill for a crisis they did not cause," said Seref Fayat, chairman of System Denim, which manufactures garments for leading Western brands and exports them to Europe and the United States.

Fayat, who also heads a garment industry lobby group, said his credit costs have spiked due to the market turmoil.

He had been drawing up budgets for a second-half expansion of his business in anticipation of an expected rebound in customer demand from Europe.

"We immediately shelved these plans following the latest developments," he said.

The lira has recovered somewhat after touching a record low of 42 to the dollar, but only after the central bank stepped in to prop up the currency.

And businesses worry more pain is on the way.

Expectations of declining inflation and lower interest rates following the adoption of an orthodox economic program that had promised Turks future relief after years of soaring prices and currency crashes, now seem in doubt.

In an unscheduled meeting last week, the central bank raised its overnight lending rate by two percentage points to 46%.

According to information provided to Reuters by bankers, short-term commercial loan interest rates have increased from an average of 42-43% to 52-53%, with some rates as high as 60%.

Morgan Stanley now forecasts any cuts to the central bank's policy rate will be shelved until June. And Goldman Sachs said it expected a hike in the policy rate by 350 basis points.

'EVERY COMPANY NEEDS A PLAN'

"The latest developments will affect companies' investment expenditures the most," Hakan Kara, a former central bank chief economist now on faculty at Bilkent University in Ankara, said on X, pointing out that investment had already been slowing.

"This will probably become even more apparent in the short-term."

The government has said the recent economic turmoil would be limited and temporary. But some company officials worry the crisis may only be beginning.

Elections are set for 2028 when Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than two decades, will reach his term limit.

Many, however, see the arrest of Imamoglu, who was jailed on Sunday pending trial for graft, as an early indication he could seek to remain in power, either through an early election or constitutional changes that would likely face public opposition.

Mehmet Buyukeksi, a board member at Ziylan, which operates in retail and real estate, said expectations of a more positive business outlook in Türkiye based on government efforts to right the economy as well as strengthening demand were now less certain.

Improvements, including lower borrowing costs, that he had been expecting to see in July, he is now pushing back to September, he said.

And there are other knock-on effects.

One company official said some firms were carrying out human resources risk assessments, worried that they could face blowback if their employees participate in protests or share political content on social media.

Some conglomerates are reevaluating their risks in terms of exchange rates, inflation, funding costs and are significantly increasing the likelihood of negative impacts in their assessments, the company official said.

And a mergers and acquisitions consultant said that, while some foreign firms might look past criticisms that the Turkish government's actions are growing increasingly undemocratic, few will pour investment into an economically fraught environment.

"Everyone will re-do their calculations and books," said Fikret Kaya, the general manager of plastics and industrial equipment manufacturer Kayalar.

"We have had to make monthly evaluations that we used to make quarterly. I think every company needs to make a plan."