Aramco closes Sabic deal, extends payment again: Update

adds details on payment schedule and loan fees

Saudi Arabia's state-controlled Saudi Aramco has completed the acquisition of a 70pc stake in the country's petrochemicals giant Sabic, and has again extended the amount of time it has to pay for it.

Aramco said it bought the stake from the state's Public Investment Fund (PIF) for 259.1bn Saudi riyals ($69.1bn), or 123.40 riyals per share. This is 38pc higher than Sabic's closing share price on the domestic Tadawul stock exchange today.

Aramco will pay the PIF in installments, beginning in August this year through to April 2028. This represents a second extension of the payment period, after Aramco and the PIF agreed late last year to new terms under which Aramco would be allowed to pay the full amount by September 2025, instead of by the end of 2021.

Under the amendments to the financial terms of the deal announced today, Aramco will pay the PIF $7bn on or before 2 August this year, $5bn by 7 April 2021, with the remaining $57.1bn payable in five staggered annual instalments by 7 April 2026. The extension means Aramco will incur additional loan charges. Under last year's delayed payment arrangements, Aramco undertook to pay the PIF total "loan fees" of $2.5bn by 30 September 2025. But today's amended terms mean Aramco will have to pay $5.9bn of loan fees by 7 April 2028.

The PIF has previously said that the deal will unlock capital that will help the government push through with long-term investment and economic diversification plans.

The deal "is consistent with Aramco's long-term downstream strategy to grow its integrated refining and petrochemicals capacity, and create value from integration across the hydrocarbon chain," Aramco, Sabic and the PIF said in a joint statement issued this morning.

Sabic is a major producer of ethylene, ethylene glycol, aromatics, methanol and polymers. It and Aramco have significant presences in LPG markets — the former as a feedstock buyer and the latter as a producer and exporter. Sabic is also a major fertilizer producer.

The two have been collaborating on a crude-to-chemicals plant in Yanbu that is scheduled to be commissioned in 2025-26. The project will process 400,000 b/d of crude into 9mn t/yr of chemicals and base oils.

By Nader Itayim and Samira Kawar