SABIC Posts SAR 499 Million Third-Quarter Profit as Prices Offset Volume Drop

SABIC booked SAR 499 million ($133.1 million) in net profit for the third quarter of 2026, 16.3% more than in the same three months a year earlier, even as its top line shrank.

Revenue came to SAR 28.17 billion ($7.51 billion), against SAR 29.06 billion ($7.75 billion) in the prior-year period, a decline of 3.1%. Prices did the work. Average selling prices, including foreign-exchange and other effects, rose 24% year on year, while sales volumes dropped 22%.

The quarter also reverses a SAR 833 million ($222.1 million) loss in the second quarter. Sequentially, revenue grew 13.5% from SAR 24.81 billion ($6.62 billion), volumes climbed 30% and prices slipped 13%.

Adjusted EBITDA fell to $1.27 billion from $1.36 billion a year earlier, and the margin narrowed to 16.9% from 17.5%. Measured against the second quarter, the figure rose 40% from $900 million.

Below the operating line, continuing and discontinued businesses moved in opposite directions. Net income from continuing operations attributable to shareholders reached about $680 million, up from $400 million. Losses from discontinued operations widened to about $540 million from $280 million.

Across the first nine months, revenue fell 10.7% to SAR 79.13 billion ($21.1 billion) from SAR 88.58 billion ($23.62 billion). Volumes were down 24% and prices up 21%. The net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to about SAR 320 million ($85.3 million) from SAR 4.84 billion ($1.29 billion) a year earlier, helped by a smaller loss from discontinued operations: about SAR 3.6 billion ($960 million), against SAR 6.68 billion ($1.78 billion). Continuing operations earned SAR 3.26 billion ($870 million), up from SAR 1.84 billion ($490 million).

Nine-month adjusted EBITDA fell 15.7% to SAR 12.3 billion ($3.28 billion) from SAR 14.59 billion ($3.89 billion), with the margin at 15.5% against 16.4%. Free cash flow was roughly flat at SAR 3.94 billion ($1.05 billion), compared with SAR 3.86 billion ($1.03 billion).

The portfolio work is where much of the earnings improvement is being booked. SABIC closed the sale of its Engineering Thermoplastics business in the Americas and Europe, and transformation initiatives generated $950 million (SAR 3.56 billion) in recurring EBITDA improvements during the first nine months. The company is targeting $3 billion (SAR 11.3 billion) of such gains by 2030. Divestments completed between 2024 and September 2026 brought in $2.3 billion (SAR 8.63 billion) and eliminated about $1.4 billion (SAR 5.25 billion) in average annual operating losses at the European petrochemicals and Engineering Thermoplastics businesses sold in 2024-2025.

On the growth side, SABIC Agri-Nutrients has taken a final investment decision on an ammonia and urea complex in Saudi Arabia that should lift urea production capacity by 54%. The Ministry of Energy has allocated feedstock for a planned methanol facility with 1.8 million metric tons of annual capacity, and three core units at the Fujian petrochemicals complex in China have completed successful trial runs.

Net debt stood at about $808 million (SAR 3.03 billion) at the end of September, up from $728 million (SAR 2.73 billion) three months earlier. Shares changed hands at SAR 44.68 ($11.91) at 10:54 a.m. Saudi time on October 25, valuing the company at about SAR 134 billion ($35.7 billion). SABIC ranks 14th on a 2026 ranking of the 100 most valuable companies in the Middle East. The results were released on Sunday.

For a producer of this size, the mix matters more than the headline. Volumes are shrinking at a double-digit rate and cash generation is essentially flat, so the gain in profit is coming from pricing and from cutting loose businesses that were losing money. That leaves a practical question: how much of the 2030 target can still be reached through portfolio moves once the obvious losses are off the books, and whether prices hold long enough for volumes to recover.