RIYADH: Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the world's fourth-biggest petrochemicals company, has recently secured a $3 billion bridge loan, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

The facility was raised to meet SABIC's ongoing financial requirements, one of the sources said.

The sources declined to give further details on the lenders or the tenor of the loan and asked not to be identified because the matter is not yet public.

SABIC officials did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

In January, SABIC bought a 25 percent stake in speciality chemicals group Clariant ending the Swiss company's fight with activist investors.

CEO Yousef al-Benyan said then that SABIC could self-finance the Clariant stake acquisition, but did not rule out the possibility of inviting banks to part-finance the deal, adding that they will look into the best option.

 

(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia, Marwa Rashad and Reem Shamseddine, editing by Louise Heavens) ((marwa.rashad@thomsonreuters.com; +966114632603 ; Reuters Messaging: marwa.rashad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))