Oil Giant Saudi Aramco completes $70 billion takeover of Sabic

Saudi Aramco has negotiated more time to pay for an almost-$70 billion acquisition of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. as this year’s slump in oil prices stretches its finances.

Aramco announced new terms on Wednesday as it completed the purchase of a 70% stake in Sabic from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Aramco will push back the bulk of installments until after 2022 and delay the final one by three years until 2028.

The oil producer will make its first payment of $7 billion to the Public Investment Fund on Aug. 2, Aramco said in a statement to the stock exchange in Riyadh. Under the previous deal reached in October — when crude was at about $60 a barrel — Aramco would have had to pay $25 billion by the end of this month. Charges on a loan the PIF is providing Aramco for the acquisition now total $5.9 billion, up from $2.5 billion previously.