Saudi chemical giant SABIC first quarter profit drops 1.8%

Saudi petrochemicals giant SABIC said Sunday its net profit for thefirst quarter of 2014 dropped by 1.8 percent year-on-year due to lower prices andhigher expenses.The company said in a statement that it earned a net income of $1.72 billion in thefirst 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 productsand 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 Gulfand one of the world's major petrochemicals groups.The group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chemicals, fertilisers,plastics and metals.