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Saudi chemical giant SABIC Q1 profit drops 1.8 pct

Saudi chemical giant SABIC Q1 profit drops 1.8 pct

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi petrochemicals giant SABIC said Sunday its net profit for the first quarter of 2014 dropped by 1.8 percent year-on-year due to lower prices and higher expenses.

The company said in a statement that it earned a net income of $1.72 billion in the first three months of 2014 compared with $1.75 billion in the same period of last year.

"The decrease in net income is attributable to lower sales prices for certain products and higher selling and administrative expenses," it said.

But SABIC's net income in the first quarter was up 4.55 percent on the profit posted in the fourth quarter of last year of $1.64 billion, it said.

SABIC, the Saudi Basic Industries Corp., is the largest publicly traded firm in the Gulf and one of the world's major petrochemicals groups.

The group is one of the world?s leading manufacturers of chemicals, fertilisers, plastics and metals.