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posted on 11/11/2006
 Hong
Kong
Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) said it
intends to form a joint venture in China
with possible investment of up to $5
billion. The company is keen on building a
manufacturing base in China, a market where
it has been selling products for the past 28
years, Mutlaq H Al Morished, chief financial
officer of the company told a news
conference.
'We are looking at building facilities in
China when the time is right,' he said.
He said Sabic was in talks with a number of
private and government groups for a joint
venture and was eyeing eastern China as a
possible location for the unit.
Al Morished said it could be a $3 billion to
5 billion ethylene cracker with facilities
to manufacture downstream products like
polyethelyne and glycol, but there were no
concrete plans as yet.
Sabic officials are in Asia where they are
making presentations to potential investors
for a debut, benchmark-sized eurobond issue,
depending on the market response.
Benchmark-sized euro bonds usually total at
least 500 million euros ($636 million).
Netherlands-based plastics and commodity
chemicals producer Sabic Europe, Sabic's
fully owned unit, is holding roadshows in
Asia and Europe from Nov 9 to Nov 17, for
selling the bond whose tenor would be
between seven and ten years.
HSBC and JP Morgan Securities are joint
bookrunners for the deal.
The proceeds will be used for general
corporate purposes including Sabic's recent
acquisition of Huntsman Petrochemicals (UK)
Ltd.
In September, Sabic agreed to buy the
European bulk chemicals unit of US-based
Huntsman for $700 million, saying the assets
fit well with its other European operations
and would allow it to gain scale on the
continent.Reuters |
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