State petroleum firm Saudi Aramco and US chemicals giant Dow, partners in the Sadara petchems complex at Jubail on the Saudi Gulf coast, have signed a non-binding MoU to enable Dow to begin the process of buying an additional 15% of the venture from Aramco. This would leave the partners with 50% each and boost Aramco’s bank balance ahead of the 5% IPO slated for late-2018.
Go-ahead for the purchase is dependent on Dow selling off its Materials Science unit within 18 months and Aramco’s completion of a creditor’s reliability test as part of the financing of the Sadara project development. A third precondition was met on 31 August with the completion of Dow’s merger with fellow US petchems giant Du Pont. (CONTINUED - 616 WORDS)
