By: ICN Bureau
Last updated : January 21, 2021 9:59 am
BASF sees adjusted earnings before interest and taxes rising to 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and sales climbing to 15.9 billion euros, up 8%, in the three months through December.
German chemicals giant BASF SE posted better-than-expected preliminarily earnings for the fourth quarter amid a rebound in demand for plastics.
BASF sees adjusted earnings before interest and taxes rising to 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and sales climbing to 15.9 billion euros, up 8%, in the three months through December, the company said on Wednesday.
The sales was mainly driven by higher volumes and prices; negative currency effects had an offsetting effect.
Full year 2020 sales declined by €167 million to €59,149 million (2019: €59,316 million) and were thus above the €57 billion to €58 billion range forecast in October 2020.
The BASF Group’s operating business performed better than expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. EBIT before special items amounted to an expected €1,113 million, an increase of 32 percent compared with the prior-year quarter (Q4 2019: €842 million) and slightly above the highest analyst estimate.
The Materials, Chemicals and Industrial Solutions segments considerably exceeded average analyst estimates for EBIT before special items in the fourth quarter of 2020. EBIT before special items fell slightly short of average analyst estimates in the Surface Technologies and Nutrition & Care segments and was considerably below analyst consensus in the Agricultural Solutions segment, mainly due to negative currency effects.
The BASF Group’s EBIT amounted to an expected €932 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, above the figure for the prior-year quarter (Q4 2019: €579 million) and above analyst consensus. In the full year 2020, EBIT declined to –€191 million (2019: €4,201 million), mainly due to the non-cash-effective impairments and provisions for restructuring in the third quarter of 2020, but was better than expected by analysts on average.