Kuwait to buy 25 pct stake in South Korea-Saudi venture

SK Gas

19/01/2016 07:48

DUBAI, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Kuwait's Petrochemicals Industries 
Co (PIC) has agreed to buy a 25 percent equity stake in a 
venture owned by South Korea's SK Gas Co Ltd  018670.KS  and 
Saudi Advanced Petrochemical Co, shareholders of the three firms 
said. 
    PIC, a subsidiary of state oil giant Kuwait Petroleum Corp, 
will invest in SK Advanced, which is building a 600,000 tonnes 
per year propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project in South Korea. 
    SK Gas is a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distributor. 
    In a statement on Tuesday, SK Gas said PIC paid $100 million 
for the stake.  
    SK Advanced will be operated as a three-party venture with 
SK Gas retaining a 45-percent stake, Saudi Advanced's AGIC 
holding 30 percent and PIC owning 25 percent. 
    Saudi Advanced had previously invested $135 million for a 35 
percent stake. It said in a statement on the Saudi stock 
exchange that its subsidiary AGIC had agreed to sell a 5 percent 
stake, reducing its holding to 30 percent.  
    The impact of the sale will generate 16 million riyals ($4.3 
million) for Saudi Advanced which will be reflected in its first 
quarter results. 
    Saudi Advanced said trial operations of the South Korean 
project would start in the first quarter of this year. SK's 
statement said commercial operations were expected to start from 
March this year.  
 
 (Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh, Meeyoung Cho and Reem 
Shamseddine; Editing by Mark Potter) 
 ((Hadeel.AlSayegh@thomsonreuters.com; +971566883310;)) 
 
Keywords: SKADVANCED M&A/PIC