KUWAIT: The EQUATE Group, a global petrochemical producer, today reported its Q1, 2018 financial results (unaudited), with EBITDA of $577 million, up by 22 percent from Q1, 2017, net profit of $435 million, up 41 percent from Q1, 2017 and NIAT of $425 million, up from $308 million in Q1, 2017. These were the EQUATE Group's best quarterly results since the Group's inception. The EQUATE Group combines the Kuwait-based EQUATE Petrochemical Company and its subsidiaries MEGlobal, Equipolymers and The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC).

EQUATE's performance was driven by a robust polyethylene (PE) market demand in all regions, a sharp price increase in Monoethylene Glycol (MEG) due to tight global supply conditions and excellent operational reliability in Kuwait, Canada and Germany.

"This remarkable achievement demonstrates the ability of EQUATE personnel across the globe to deliver operational excellence consistently," said the EQUATE Group's President & CEO, Dr Ramesh Ramachandran. "We have been able to deliver on the cost and growth synergies identified after the MEGlobal acquisition, and our shared strategies on innovation and optimization of the ethylene glycol plants enabled several operational breakthroughs in Q1. Our focus remains on safe and reliable operations as we head into the next quarter."

EQUATE's construction on its new world-scale MEGlobal ethylene glycol plant in Oyster Creek, TX, remains on track, with completion expected in the 2nd half of 2019.

The EQUATE Group* is a global producer of petrochemicals and the world's second largest producer of Ethylene Glycol (EG). The Group has industrial complexes in Kuwait, North America and Europe that annually produce over 5 million tons of Ethylene, EG, Polyethylene (PE) and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). The products are marketed throughout Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The EQUATE Group's shareholders include Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). The Group is a leading enterprise that pursues sustainability wherever it operates through partnerships in fields that include the environment, economy and society.