Sabic meets Q4 net forecast with 27% rise

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) posted a 27 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, meeting average analyst forecasts, driven by higher prices of petrochemical and plastics products.
    
The world's largest chemical firm by market value made a net profit of SR5.81 billion ($1.55 billion) in the quarter after SR4.58 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, it said.

Analysts had forecast, on average, a net profit of SR5.87 billion, according to a Reuters survey.

"The rise in fourth-quarter profit ... is due to an improvement in prices in most of the petrochemical and plastics products as well as better operational performance," Sabic said in a bourse statement on Tuesday.

Sabic's earnings are a yardstick for rivals such as Dow Chemical and Germany's BASF.

Fourth-quarter operating profit rose 29 per cent to SR10 billion in the quarter, it said.