Saudi Arabia's state energy giant, Aramco, posted a 12% decline in FY 2024 net profit due to lower prices and sales impacting revenues. Consequently, the company is set to pay lower dividends in 2025.

Net profit for 2024 amounted to 398.42 billion riyals ($106 billion), in line with analysts’ mean estimate, according to LSEG data.

Profit for Q4, was $22.3 billion, missing analysts' estimate of $25.9 billion.

“The decrease was primarily driven by lower revenue and other income related to sales, higher operating costs, as well as lower finance and other income. This was partially offset by lower income taxes and zakat,” Aramco said.

Revenue fell to $436.6 billion in 2024, a shade lower year-on-year (YoY). Free cash flow came to about $85 billion, down 16% YoY.

Aramco's board has declared a base dividend of $21.1 billion for Q4, a 4.2% YoY increase, to be paid in Q1 2025. Performance-linked dividend of $200 million will be paid in Q1 2025.

The company expects to declare total dividends of $85.4 billion in 2025, down from about $124.2 billion in 2024 and $98 billion in 2023.

The 2025 capital investment guidance stands at $52 billion to $58 billion, excluding around $4 billion of project financing, which is spread over multiple years. Capex reached $53 billion in 2024, including $50 billion in organic capex.

The government owns 81.5% of Aramco, while the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, owns another 16%. The dividends are a key addition to the government's coffers.

(Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)  

brinda.darasha@lseg.com