Saudi-Based Yansab Leads Losses in Early Trading Despite Earnings Beat

Shares of the Saudi petrochemical firm Yanbu National Petrochemical Co., or Yansab, fell on Thursday, despite reporting over twofold profit growth in 2021. As of early trading, the stock led the losses on the Kingdom's main stock index TASI, falling almost 2% to reach SR70.7 (US$18.9).

The company earlier reported profits of SR1.5 billion (US$399.44 million) in 2021, compared to SR678 million (US$180.55 million) a year earlier. Profit growth was driven by higher selling prices. Revenues surged from SR5.03 billion (US$1.34 billion) to SR7.4 billion (US$1.97 billion), representing a 47% leap.

This came despite lower production volumes, impacted by the shutdown of the company’s facilities for maintenance, as well as higher production costs, Yansab said in a bourse filing on Wednesday.