Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) has announced a net profit of $1.6 billion in Q3 2018 on the back of rising average prices and sales, Pipeline Oil and Gas Magazine reported.

Profits rose 5.4% from the $1.5 billion posted in the same period a year earlier, according to a SABIC bourse filing.

“The increase in net income is attributable to higher average selling prices and increase in sales volumes,” the company filing said.

However, profits from the first three quarters of 2018 are down substantially on the year before, falling more than 50% to $4.9 billion from $10 billion in 2017.

SABIC said that the poor figures were due to its restructuring progam, which has had a cost impact of $290 million.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, is currently in talks to sell a controlling stake of the petrochemicals company to the state oil giant Saudi Aramco.

Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih told al-Ekhbariya TV that he expects the details of the SABIC deal to be finalized in the first half of 2019, Reuters reported.