SABIC net profit for the three months to June 30 slid by 68% to 2.1 billion riyals (US$560 million) from a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Profit for the first six months of the year plunged 55% to 5.5 billion riyals (US$1.47 billion), it said.

The slide in earnings was blamed on “lower average selling prices,” and a drop in profits made by its associates and joint ventures, said the largest listed company on the Saudi bourse.

Revenues from sales in the first half of the year dropped by 14% to US$19.5 billion, reported SABIC, which is among the world’s 10 biggest chemical firms.

State-owned energy conglomerate Aramco said in March it was buying the government’s 70% stake in SABIC for US$69.1 billion, in a deal aimed at providing cash to finance the kingdom’s ambitious transformation programme.

Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, is paying most of the price in cash over the next few years but has already raised a US$12 billion loan from leading international banks.