Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Royal Dutch Shell sold the first commercial shipment of base oil from their Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar, Shell said. Pearl is scheduled to reach full capacity by the middle of next year with the second production unit planned to start operations this year, Shell said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The plant, which cost $19 billion (Dh69.77 billion) to construct, is the world's largest facility that makes liquid fuels from natural gas instead of crude. At full capacity, Pearl will convert 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas a day into 120,000 barrels a day of condensate, liquid petroleum gas and ethane as well as 140,000 barrels a day of fuels including gasoil, naphtha and base oil.

Almarai

Saudi Arabia's Almarai, a founding shareholder in Zain Saudi, will likely take a $36 million impairment on its stake in the telecoms carrier at the end of 2011 if the shares remain stuck near current levels, the company's chief financial officer said yesterday. Dairy firm Almarai was one of nine founding shareholders in Zain Saudi and owns a 2.5 per cent stake initially valued at 350 million riyals (Dh342.69 million). The operator launched services in 2008, competing against rivals Saudi Telecom and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily). Based on Zain Saudi's share price on September 30, the impairment would likely be 136 million riyals ($36.3 million), but since then the shares have fallen further, from 6.25 to 5.7 riyals, a seven-month low. Zain Saudi wants to cut its capital by 55 per cent to 6.27 billion riyals and then issue 4.4 billion riyals of new shares.

SRMG

Saudi Research and Marketing Group, or SRMG, the largest listed publisher in the Middle East, yesterday said third-quarter net profit fell 18.5 per cent to 8.8 million Saudi riyals from a year ago. The firm said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website that its profit fell mainly due to "revenue delays related to advertising campaigns, printing projects, and other contracts to the fourth quarter of 2011". Earnings per share for the first nine months of the year were 0.72 riyal, down from 0.76 riyal a year ago, while third-quarter operating profit stood at 16.6 million riyals versus 18.2 million riyals a year ago, SRMG said. Shares traded down 1.8 per cent at 16.90 riyals yesterday.

Telecom Egypt

State-owned Telecom Egypt, the country's sole fixed-line provider, said a recent strike by workers hasn't had a major impact on the telco's operations, even though some of its services were disrupted. Telecom Egypt's statement comes amid local media reports suggesting strikes were in fact escalating and that the 140 phone directory service had been stopped, along with disruptions at other central call centres. Last week, some Telecom Egypt employees briefly held Mohammad Abdul Rahim, the company's chief executive officer, hostage in a bid to extract concessions for the strikers.

Yamama Saudi Cement

Yamama Saudi Cement said yesterday its board has decided to go ahead with a plan to replace its five old clinker lines with a new one that will raise its clinker output capacity by 78.6 per cent to 10,000 tonnes per day. The outcome of the project's feasibility study was positive and the firm will go ahead and tender the project, it said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website. Earlier this month, Yamama said its third-quarter net profit rose 6 per cent to 149 million Saudi riyals from 140 million riyals in the same period a year ago on the back of higher sales. Cement companies in Saudi Arabia are benefiting after the kingdom announced a massive infrastructure building spend until 2013. In addition, a partial lifting of a year-long ban on cement exports has also benefited the industry.

Tasnee

Saudi-based petrochemical firm National Industrialization, better known as Tasnee, yesterday posted a third-quarter net profit of 725 million Saudi riyals, compared with 373 million riyals a year ago, on higher prices and improved sales. Third-quarter operating profit stood at 1.59 billion riyals, compared with 777.2 million riyals in the July-September period of 2010, Tasnee said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website. Earnings per share for the nine month period ending September 30 came in at 3.41 riyals versus 1.96 riyals in the year earlier. Tasnnee shares last traded down 0.5 per cent at 40.90 riyals.

— Compiled from staff reports