Saudi's Safco to raise capital for expansion

Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Company (Safco) will raise its capital by 33.3 percent using retained earnings in order to finance expansion plans, it said in a bourse statement on Saturday.

The board of directors at Saudi Arabia's second-largest chemical company, a unit of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), approved a capital increase on Wednesday to raise the firm's capital to SR3.3bn ($888.8m) from SR2.5bn through a rights issue, distributing a bonus share for every three shares held.

"The reason for the capital increase is due to the capitalisation of part of its retained earnings to its capital to meet the company's expansion," the statement said.