Saudi Sipchem unit gets $187.7 million loan

Beirut: Saudi International Petrochemical Co (2310.SA), or Sipchem, said its local unit International Polymers Co, or IPC, has signed an agreement for a long-term loan worth 704 million Saudi riyals ($187.7 million, Dh689.4 million) from the country’s Public Investment Fund.

The debt, which will mature in 2027, will be used by IPC to finance a petrochemical project in Jubail Industrial City in eastern Saudi Arabia, the company said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse website. The plant will produce 200,000 metric tonnes a year of ethylene vinyl acetate and low density polyethylene and is expected to start operations in the third quarter, it added.

IPC is a venture that is 75 per cent owned by Sipchem and 25 per cent by South Korea’s Hanwha Chemical Corp, according to the statement.

Sipchem said last week that its unit Sipchem Chemicals Co had signed a deal for a SAR257.5 million loan from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund to help finance the construction of a polybutylene terephthalate plant in Jubail. It also said in a separate statement last week that it had agreed with Saudi Arabia’s Sahara Petrochemicals Co (2260.SA) to conduct a feasibility study for a possible merger between the two firms.

Sipchem shares last traded down 0.7 per cent at SAR22.50.