Saudi ARAMCO: Long-Term Decision for Buying 70% of SABIC Stocks

The president of Saudi Aramco company, engineer Amin Al-Nasser, said that the purchase of “SABIC” shares from the Public Investment Fund was carried out on purely commercial grounds.

Al-Nasser explained that the evaluation of the selling price relied on a long-term view of value creation and not on considerations, the share price in the short term, indicating that the decline in the global economy due to the current conditions should not be the basis for evaluating costs.

He stated during a phone interview with the channel of “Al-Arabiya” that Saudi Aramco relied on financing the deal on its cash flows, and on some loans to pay the dues of the Public Investment Fund, stressing that the process was done in a way that ensures that the return is good for the company.

He added: “We are optimistic, and the deal fits with our strategy and our long-term outlook on value creation rather than the short-term view of the current price.”

And Nasser indicated that the consumption of oil in chemicals is one of the largest fields that grow, meaning that the volume of petrochemical production in “Aramco” and “SABIC” together amounted to about 90 million tons, according to statistics in 2019.