RIYADH, 9 January 2003 — The Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) signed a SR4.33 billion ($1.154 billion) loan facility with a consortium of international and local banks yesterday. The funds will be used to finance the construction of manufacturing plants for one of SABIC’s subsidiaries, the United Petrochemical Co. at Jubail Industrial City. Riyad Bank acted as the lead manager for the loan and the Gulf International Bank acted as an independent financial adviser. An additional SR1.5 billion ($400 million) will be provided by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. The 17th SABIC affiliate, United is due to start production in the latter half of next year. It will have an annual production capacity of one million tons of ethylene, 575,000 tons of ethylene glycol and 150,000 tons of linear alpha olefins.
