Saudi Basic Industries, the $50B petrochemical outfit, has selected Interpublic Group as its global communications agency of record for PR, advertising, media buying, branding, design, events, sponsorship and web marketing.

IPG edged holding company teams from incumbent WPP, Publicis and Omnicom in the six-month competitive pitch.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies handled the bulk of the SABIC work.

Samir Al-Abdrabbuh, SABIC’s VP-corporate communications, said IPG emerged victorious in the “fair and rigorous technical and commercial evaluation and procurement process” because it’s a ‘”one stop shop and the team best positioned to take us to the next level; strengthening and leveraging our brand worldwide.”

Key staffers of Team Interpublic will come from Weber Shandwick, McCann Worldgroup McCann Enterprise business specialist.

The government of Saudi Arabia controls a 70 percent stake in SABIC, which has 40K employees in 40 nations and total assets of $85B.