Advanced Global to swap SK Advanced stake for domestic plant shares

Advanced Global agrees to swap South Korea stake for Saudi assets

Advanced Petrochemical Company’s Advanced Global Investment will carry out a share swap with SK Gas Petrochemical, according to a Tadawul disclosure. The agreement involves Advanced Global swapping its 30% stake in South Korea’s SK Advanced for SK Gas Petrochemical’s 15% stake in Saudi’s Advanced Polyolefins Industry Company. Advanced Global will also pay USD 129.3 mn to SK Gas Petrochemical to account for the valuation gap between the two holdings.

The transaction involves a cross-border asset ownership shuffle, where Advanced Global will shed its interest in SK Advanced’s 600k tpa propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant and a 400k tpa polypropylene plant in Ulsan. In exchange, the company is increasing its grip on Advanced Polyolefins’ Jubail complex, which has capacities of 843k tpa propylene and 800k tpa polypropylene.

Why this matters: By offloading its interest in the Korean plant, Advanced Petrochemical is doubling down on its home turf operations, choosing to focus on its Jubail complex, which boasts higher capacities.