Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat – Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) has announced the launching of its Initial Public Offering of shares in the Tadawul Stock Exchange. The IPO will open for subscriptions on September 9 for a period of 10 days, or until September 18, 2006. The share capital of SIPCHEM is SR 1,500 million, consisting of 150 million fully paid ordinary shares with a nominal value of SR 10 each. SIPCHEM will be offering 30 percent of its share capital through the IPO, or 45 million shares. Share applications have been determined at a minimum of 10 shares and a maximum of 25,000 shares.
The National Commercial Bank is acting as Financial Advisor, Lead Manager and Lead Underwriter of this offering.
Sipchem, one of the leading private sector petrochemical companies in Saudi Arabia, was founded in December 1999, with the intention of investing in basic and intermediate petrochemicals. Sipchem started with a capital of SR 500 million and increased it in 2003 and 2005 to reach SR 1,500 million. Approximately 85% of its founders are individuals and institutions from Saudi Arabia and the rest are from the GCC.
Sipchem has successfully completed two large plants owned and operated by its subsidiaries International Methanol Company (IMC) and Gulf Advanced Chemical Industries Company (GACIC). IMC started commercial production in December 2004 producing 1 million metric tons of methanol per annum, a chemical used in a multitude of applications like wood products, resins, gasoline additives, as well as films, fibers and polyester. GACIC is the first company to produce butanediol in the Middle East which started commercial production in March 2006 with an annual capacity of 75 thousand metric tons, a specialty chemical used in the manufacture of Polyurethanes, engineering plastic, air bags, as well as in a wide range of parts for the automotive and packaging industries.
In 2005, Sipchem recorded a profit of SR 325 million, compared to SR 6 million in 2004 and its total assets increased to SR 4.4 billion, compared to SR 2.6 billion the year before; moreover, its shareholders’ equity increased from SR 736 million in 2004 to SR 1.9 billion in 2005.
In the first half of this year, Sipchem achieved a net profit of SR 219.6 million compared to SR 174.6 million for the same period of 2005.
During the second half of this year, construction will begin at Sipchem’s new Acetyls Complex. Located in the company’s site in Jubail Industrial City, the launch of this additional facility demonstrates the company’s aggressive expansion program, which aims to make the company one of the largest, fully-integrated, petrochemical complex in the Middle East owned and operated by the private sector.