Welcome to SABIC's Q3 2024 earnings call. This is Sarah Alzamami acting as a moderator. Please note that the call is being recorded, and a transcript will be published on SABIC Investor Relations webpage together with supplementary materials. The earnings call will feature commentary from SABIC CEO Engr. Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, together with CFO Mr. Salah Al-Hareky, and IRO Mr. Naif Al-Ayed. Naif Al-Ayed will now guide us through an outline of today's event. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you for joining the SABIC Q3 2024 earnings call. Please note that forward-looking statements in this call are made with certain assumptions, risk, and uncertainty. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance. Actual outcomes may differ materially from what the statements imply. Please refer to the disclaimer in the presentation and in our financial reports, which are available at SABIC.com. Our CEO will start by going over the high-level market context that influenced our industry performance in the Q3 of 2024. This will be followed by a rundown of some key points to bear in mind with respect to SABIC Q3 performance. The CFO will then walk you through SABIC aggregate financial performance with additional insights on the Q3 of this year. Our CEO will come back at the end to provide a brief outlook for the remainder of 2024 and open the line for Q&A sessions. We ask that participants limit their questions to SABIC corporate performance and avoid referring to listed affiliate companies. Now, please join me in welcoming SABIC CEO Engr. Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh. Thank you, Naif, and thank you all to those who have dialed to join us today in the earnings call. Let us begin with a brief overview of the macroeconomic landscape of Q3 2024. Global GDP saw modest growth, although some major economies faced shutdowns or slowdowns. Inflation eased, and central banks began lowering interest rates. These trends stimulated economic growth. Overall, economic indicators point to a tempered increase in market momentum. Let me turn now to the petrochemical industry. It is evident that the overcapacity and the weak demand remain a challenge. As shown in the graph, current utilization rates are still below long-term averages. Additionally, PMI data, that is, the Purchasing Managers' Index, signaled a decline in global economic conditions with values below 50 for all regions. I now would like to highlight six points that determined SABIC's commitment to improving its overall performance. Our total recordable incident rate for Q3 2024 was 0.09, a testament to our dedication to health, safety, and operational excellence. The sale of our shares in Alba Bahrain is a measured determination of our portfolio optimization journey, which our CFO will shed some light on later. Despite market challenges, SABIC maintained a stable EBITDA margin, demonstrating our resilience. Our growth projects, including SABIC Fujian Petrochemical Complex and the MTBE plant at Petrokemya, Jubail, are progressing well. Also, we have increased the capacity of the SABIC SK Nexlene Company in Korea by 90,000 tons per year. SABIC is honored to have been selected as a sustainability champion in the petrochemical sector by the Ministry of Economy and Planning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We are not only driving change within our own operations but also empowering other corporates across the value chain to elevate their sustainability performance. The slide lists one more Q3 highlight related to our solutions and portfolio innovation, which I will discuss in the next slide. There are four developments in the innovation and sustainability that I would like to share with you. First, we have completed the mechanical work of the Pyrolysis Plant of the Advanced Recycling Joint Venture in Europe. This milestone represents another step towards our commitment for sustainable solutions through our TRUCIRCLE initiative. Second, SABIC has inaugurated the world's largest solar installation using fully recyclable material at the Genk site in Belgium, developed in collaboration with our partners in Europe, featuring 4,600 innovative solar panels made with SABIC material, which are 100% recyclable and significantly lighter than the traditional panels. Third, the independent commodity intelligence service gives the ICIS 2024 Innovation Awards for the best process innovation from a Large Company. To the largest scale electrically heated steam cracking furnace developed by SABIC in collaboration with BASF and Linde in Germany. In fact, the furnace was recognized as being the overall winner of all award categories. The last development I want to highlight is the R&D 100 award that our LNP STAT-KON compounds won. This electrically conductive material can be used in the mass production of electrode plates for batteries. Let us now take a look at the quarterly demand and sales of the individual end markets we serve. As you know, and as you can see, market conditions varied across end products. Demand was stable in the majority of the industries, but it grew in the automotive, hygiene, and healthcare. We expect to see the market trends in Q4 2024 to remain unchanged in most of the end sectors, except for consumer goods, agriculture, where we anticipate an improvement over the prior quarter. I will now hand the call over to our CFO, Mr. Salah Al-Hareky, for a review of SABIC's financial results and additional comments on individual markets. Please, Salah. Thank you, Abdulrahman, and good afternoon to all. Thank you to everyone joining the call. Despite market challenges, SABIC leveraged its global footprint to boost sales volume, which resulted in $9.8 billion in revenue, representing a 3% increase in last quarter. Q3 EBITDA reached $1.52 billion, stable compared with Q2, and our year-to-date EBITDA is ahead of last year, totaling $4.24 billion over the first nine months of 2024. This reflects our focus on profitable growth and continued total shareholder return. Our net income for this quarter is $268 million, an increase of $1 billion compared to the Q3 last year, mainly due to the fair valuation of Hadeed as discontinued operation in the Q3 2023 as part of our portfolio optimization effort. For the nine-month period, our net income from continued operation totaled approximately $1 billion, with a 40% increase compared to last year. I would like to highlight that the cash generation of SABIC business remained strong. Our cash flow from operations amounted to $1.75 billion, which improved relative to the previous quarter. SABIC diversified the global product portfolio, allowing us to seize opportunities across geographical regions and product lines. We increased sales volume by 4% quarter- over- quarter, driving EBITDA growth despite lower prices and higher variable costs. Our EBITDA shows a healthy trend since Q4 of last year. Now, let me go through our segments' separate performance. Next slide. As you can see in the slide, petrochemical sales volume rose by 5%, which was offset by a 4% decline in average selling price. Both our polymer and chemicals businesses have increased their sales, with polyethylene and polypropylene being the primary drivers of higher sales. Overall, the volume sold during the Q3 was around 10 million metric tons. In the agri-nutrient sector, market opened at a sizable deficit but improved as quarter progress and outages in several regions caused a shortage of supply in the market. As a result, revenue increased by 17%, driven by a 17% rise in prices, partially offset by an approximately 1% decline in volume. Total sales volume for the Q3 was around 1.8 million metric tons. At SABIC, we continually optimize our portfolio through focusing on our core business and relocating our capital to higher margin opportunities to be a preferred world leader in chemicals. Hadeed and Functional Forms divestment, with the sale of Alba shareholding, marked the beginning of our portfolio optimization journey. The sales proceeds of Alba shareholding are expected to be within a range of $880-$950 million. We are looking to further optimize our operating costs as well as ensuring we are competitive in all markets where we operate. This concludes the financial highlights. I will now hand back to SABIC CEO for year-ahead guidance. Thank you, Salah. At SABIC, our long-term focus remains on strategic portfolio optimization, restructuring of underperforming assets, prioritizing customer intimacy, sustainability and innovation, and finally, cost and capital discipline. Our guidance for the year ahead is based on stable economic growth, as reflected in our global GDP growth rate of 2.7% for the year 2024. We maintain a disciplined approach to managing our CapEx, projecting spending to be at the lower range of $3.3-$3.9 billion US dollars for the year 2024. This concludes the presentation portion of today's call. Back to Sarah to kick off the Q&A session. Thank you, Engineer Al-Fageeh. Audience, please use the raise hand feature on your screen to ask a question and wait for your line to be opened. Make sure to click the lower hand button once the question is asked. You can also share your questions in writing. Please limit your questions to two to three per participant to allow for enough time for others. The first question is from Prateek Bhatnagar from HSBC. Prateek, please come closer to the mic and ask your question. The first is on your CapEx guidance. The first question is on CapEx guidance. You've cut the CapEx guidance from $4.5 billion to $3.3-$3.9 billion. What does it mean for SABIC's growth projects? Or in other words, where has the CapEx been cut from? That's number one. Number two question is, could you quantify the one-offs which we have seen this quarter? So what was the impact of the fair value assessment loss from Alba currency exchange, divestment of Functional Forms? So basically, I wanted to get a sense of what is the clean net income from continuing operations. Thanks. These are the two questions I have. Okay. Patrick, even though we have some difficulties in understanding your, especially the second question, it was a lot of cut-off in the voice, but we will answer you. But if you did not get the answer that you are looking for, just please repeat the question. If the first one is related to the CapEx and we spent $3.3-$3.9, and you are saying, what is the plan for the company for this? I can tell you that we keep maintaining our discipline in managing our CapEx and also optimizing it and optimizing our cost discipline. That's why the reduction in our CapEx is coming mainly from what the company is taking in the past few years to make sure that there is a discipline in our CapEx during this difficult time in the economy. I'm not sure I get the second question, but Salah, have you got it? No, I would like to comment, I think, to add to the comment made by the CEO. I mean, I'm sure you are very aware of the challenging market. So we have actually done very extensive work to optimize our capital spend. So that's why you see our capital expenditure is actually on the low side, and potentially year-end is going to be at the lower range of the capital guidance that we provided. On the second question on the Alba, while we have actually announced the Alba transaction, which is, by the way, this is a result of our effort looking at the portfolio of SABIC across regions, not only in the Middle East or Saudi Arabia, but also we're looking at our portfolio in Europe and America. So Alba actually has been announced, and while it is announced, there's actually some due diligence required and relevant regulatory approval that we need to complete before we actually close the transaction. I hope, Prateek, we answered your question. Thank you, Prateek. The next question is from Giuseppe Valeri from Morgan Stanley. Giuseppe, please come closer to your mic and ask your question. Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one is about sales volume. They have been quite resilient in the Q3 for both petchems and Agri-Nutrients. And I was wondering, how do you see those evolving in the Q4 and for 2025? And then about the portfolio optimization after Hadid, Alba, and the Functional Forms business, where do you see potential opportunities for further optimization? Thanks. Thank you. I'll take the first question. Salah, please take the second one. As you may know, I mean, in every year, we review our maintenance and turnarounds and also our inventory and the size of our inventory at the site and outside the site. And we maintain our assets to make sure that we operate this asset, of course, safely and maximize the utilization of this asset and make sure that we have high discipline in our operational integrity of all of our assets, making sure also that there is enough inventory to supply all of our customers around the globe at the right time with our products. So this is mainly the changes in the sales volume from quarter- to- quarter. But we are not trying to make any products that sometimes it does not require the market because of the number of grades that the company has, the number of portfolios that we have. It is huge in the company. So we are trying to make the optimization both in the production side as well as in the inventory side. Salah? Okay. Thank you for your question. I think I answered partially the question on the portfolio optimization, but I will probably shed more light about it, and actually, we have started the work on the portfolio optimization a few months ago, and the work is continuing to progress very well. This work is actually very comprehensive, so we're looking at all of our assets in Saudi Arabia, in Europe, and America, and the intention in our mind is very straightforward. It's not only looking into non-strategic assets for potential divestment, but also we're looking into some of our core assets that actually position in certain regions, and the intention of the whole exercise is actually to unlock value and improve our capital efficiency going forward, and then invest the proceeds in higher margin markets and regions. And also, it's very important and critical. This proceeds of capital and the divestment and the portfolio optimization is to also support our intention to distribute dividends and potentially grow dividends over time. So although the dividend aspect is a discretion of the board approval, but actually, this is the intention going forward. So I hope I answered your question. Thank you, Giuseppe, for your question. The next question is from Brennan Eatough from Riyad Capital. Brennan, please come closer to your mic and ask your question. Can you hear me? Yes, we do. Okay. That's great. Congrats on the earnings. Obviously, the presentation is lit, as always. I just wanted to talk about the drop of the net profits, Q over Q. Margins stayed roughly the same, and net profits were roughly 100% of operating profit in Q24. And it looks like as a percentage of operating profit, it's around 40%. I just wanted to know what happened in between. Just double-check the discrepancy there. And then also wanted to get an opinion, if I could, on any type of changes you might be seeing coming up ahead for the agri-nutrients business regarding Chinese supply restrictions. Thank you. Thank you, Brennan. Did you get the second part of the question about China? No, I'll leave it. I'll I'll forward it to you. So Brennan, I'll answer the first part of the question, and then maybe our CEO can take the part on agri-nutrients. So yeah, I agree with you. There's actually a difference between our net income and EBIT, and this is actually attributed to mainly the tax payment and the tax expense for this quarter. It's around, I think, $370 million-$400 million. And there are some non-recurring also accounting posting of transactions. One is losses related to derivatives. Although it is very small, it's around maybe $40 million-$45 million. So this is why you see the difference between the net income and EBIT. I will forward your second part of the question to our CEO. Yeah. If I understand your question correctly, this is the Chinese impact on supply in the agri-nutrients. I can tell you that Agri-nutrients, it's been, by the way, in SABIC more than SABIC itself for 60 years right now, which has established a very robust market around the globe. We have a solid base of customers in Kingdom and outside the Kingdom. I can say, I mean, if I just review any impact, I did not see no major impact in any supply that comes from China or goes to China. Thank you, Brennan, for your question. The next question is from Waleed Jimma from Goldman Sachs. Waleed, please come closer to your mic and ask your question. Thank you for the presentation. I just have a couple of questions. First of all, just adding to the first question on CapEx following the cut on full-year CapEx guidance. We also saw some recent media reports that some projects related to the oil to chemicals in Saudi were canceled. Could you please shed some color on SABIC's CapEx outlook looking into next year onwards, and how should we think about oil to chemical projects in Saudi? The second one is, if you could just talk about your carbon capture projects that you're undertaking with Aramco, how SABIC is positioned in these initiatives in terms of CapEx and expected returns, and how is the company likely to benefit from these investments? Thank you. Thank you, Waleed. I think the first question related to the CapEx has been answered by Salah, but if you still have some additional inquiry, we can add it, but the second question related to the oil to chemical project, I think we are aware of what has been said in the media related to this project, but I can tell you that the oil to chemical project, as a concept, it has been there for many years. We are studying this conversion of oil into chemical, which has required a lot of technology development, a lot of enhancement of the technology and the conversion factors, and a lot of visibility studies that need to be taken, so we are still in that development in the technology area as well as in the visibility of the project. We would like to just stress to you that we are still committed to realize the synergies between Saudi Aramco and SABIC, as has been announced many times, which is part of it, including the liquid-to-chemicals. And we will continue to make that optimization and continue to make the investment that's required to optimization and improving into our value added to our shareholders. And if there is any update on this project, the major ones, I think we are going to make it clear and at the right and appropriate time. Related to the third question, I think you asked about the carbon capture, if I'm not mistaken, and sequestration. Let me just tell you, I mean, the carbon capture, it's part of our strategy in the decarbonization. So our decarbonization starts with our energy intensity programs that we are establishing. Also, part of it is the improvement in our operations and our turnarounds and our ups and downs, which eliminate to some extent our emissions, and also the carbon capture and utilization, which we have proven in Jubail. We capture more than 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and we utilize this, and now lately, we are studying with Saudi Aramco how to also sequester this carbon dioxide when it is being collected and purified, so this is ongoing, and the feasibility study for this is progressing very well, and definitely, when it comes to a time that there is a major development in this, we are going to announce it. Thank you, Waleed, for your questions. The next question is from Oliver Connor from Citibank. Oliver, please come closer to your mic and ask your question. Hi. Thank you for taking the question. Just one for me now, actually. If I think about the macro again and the dynamic of low utilization rates that you mentioned in your press release, I mean, are you seeing any indications of rationalization or investment slowing? Because it feels like we've been talking about the sort of rationalization for a while, but there doesn't seem to have been a market response just yet. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Mr. Is it clear now? Okay. Thank you, Oliver, for the question. Look, I mean, the optimization in our portfolio is ongoing, and it will keep on going, and as you may see this year, we have rationalized the Olefins 3 at Geleen with its derivatives. And I think this eases our operation in Europe because of the demand in Europe, as you may see. It has been impacted a lot. So that's what has been done this year. Continuation of any rationalization for the business, it depends. It depends on the overall world and global economy, how does it go? And it's also part of the, as I mentioned earlier, in our portfolio optimization. Still, the optimization is ongoing, and I don't see that anything that at this point of time can be shared. But if there is anything developed, definitely will be shared in the appropriate time. Thank you, Oliver, for your questions. The next question is from Shashank Lanka from Bank of America. Shashank, please come closer to your mic and ask your question. [crosstalk] Sashank? Your voice is cutting off. Can you please check your connection? Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. So, all of the questions on portfolio optimization discussion. So, are there any further closures in Europe that could be possible from your end? We've seen a lot of announcements over the last few weeks from some of the European peers. It would be wonderful if there were a few more assets. Sorry, go on. There's a few more closures in Europe that. Shashank, if I understood your question correctly, and as I mentioned, we're looking at Europe as part of our portfolio optimization. We have done a lot of work. We've actually taken steps to optimize our footprint in Europe with the closure of Olefins 3 cracker, as our CEO referred to. But the work on looking at Europe is still ongoing, Europe and America and the KSA. And we're hoping that we will be able to share more information in the Q1 of 2025. Thank you, Shashank. The next question is from Alex Palmer from JPMorgan. Alex, please come closer to your mic and ask your question. Can you hear me? Yes, maybe louder. Yeah. A couple of questions from me. Obviously, there's a lot of talk about a number of my compatriots have sort of asked with regard to Europe and the state of play over there and rationalization. So maybe you could let us know, are you EBITDA positive in Europe? And maybe you could give us a bit more information with regard to your profitability in Europe. I noticed in your accounts last year, there's some fairly big tax losses booked. So just what your profitability in Europe is. And then also, with regard to your European business and the ethylene derivative balances, when can we expect the Wilton cracker to come back up? Is that still a plan to restart that cracker, or has that been abandoned? Thank you. Okay. So Alex, thank you very much. Let me answer your first question. And I think I have already answered the question on Europe. And we continue to look into our assets in Europe. I mean, while a closure and rationalization of our footprint in Europe is one option, but there are many options for Europe. One definitely is we continue also to optimize our performance within our assets in Europe, optimizing our capital spend, optimizing our fixed cash cost. And there are many also options that it's actually under review, including, and this is, again, this is options. Nothing had actually materialized. There's a partial exit or full exit. But these are options that are being reviewed by the management and potentially the board to draw and put color on the path going forward. As far as the second part of your question related to the ethylene balance and related to the Wilton cracker, I can mention to you that, as you may know, that the ethylene is long in Europe. No doubt about this. I mean, it's been long for even sometimes. But it's balanced for SABIC. I mean, our operations in SABIC, it is well balanced with our ethylene. So we have no problem with securing or producing ethylene for our assets in Europe. As far as the Wilton project, it is under construction, and I think it has almost completed their construction. And actually, it's been put in two phases. The phase one has been done four years back when we convert half of our furnaces into ethane crackers. And now we are going to complete the second phase of that cracker to convert the total cracker into gas cracker. So now I think we are transitioning into an approach to finalize the preparation for the startup. We want just to make sure that the plant, when it starts up after a few years of stoppage, that it is safely started up. And this is what is the most important thing. So we are, at this moment, planning this safe startup. Thank you, Alex, and thank you all for the thoughtful questions. The investor relations team is available for pending inquiries and any follow-up from today's call. Contact information is displayed on screen. The call has now concluded. Thank you again for attending SABIC's earnings call for the third quarter of 2024. You may now disconnect.