Chemical giant SABIC reported a 33 percent rise in full year net profits to SR27 billion (€4.6 billion) for 2007 in its annual report published on Thursday. These are the first results released after SABIC's purchase of GE Plastics for $11.6 billion (€7.5 billion) and the formation of Sabic Innovative Plastics in September last year. Total group sales for the year were SR 126.2 billion (€21.7 billion) with total production from its manufacturing operations rising to 55m tpa of all products. The purchase of GE Plastics boosted the total SABIC workforce by 10,000 people and provided significant additional plant and compounding operations. SABIC added that the move provided world class application and technology centers as well as opening up new opportunities for “exploitable synergies in innovation knowledge and value chain extension”. Vice chairman and CEO, Mohamed H, Al-Mady, said: “I believe it is important to stress that this acquisition was taken as a strategic step to position SABIC for long term growth in a highly specialized and high performance sector of the plastics market - a market sector that would have taken SABIC many years to penetrate without this acquisition. “Strategically it moved Sabic forward dramatically on its 2020 growth path. This was not a short term step and should not be evaluated on a short term performance basis.” General manager for corporate communications, Othman Al-Humaidi, added: “We have continued to expand our manufacturing capacity in Saudi Arabia while growing our manufacturing and marketing platform in Europe, the Americas and Asia.” The report showed that at the time of the purchase GE Plastics net working capital stood at SR7,798,207 (€1,347,150) while property plant and equipment stood at SR18,503,149 (€3,196,443). Cash flow on acquisition stood at SR43,231,890 (€7,468,934).
