BASF's Strube exits on warning note over Q2 profits growth

06 May 2003 12:23  [Source: ICIS news]

Jurgen Strube

LONDON (CNI)--BASF's outgoing chairman Jurgen Strube gave further warning of a lacklustre 2003 in his valedictory speech to the company's annual meeting on Tuesday.

Handing over control to Jurgen Hambrecht, Strube explicitly stated for the first time that BASF has accepted there will be no economic recovery soon.

"We do not expect there to be an upturn in the immediate future. The current phase of economic weakness has structural roots that will continue to exert a negative influence. We must also reckon with volatile prices for energy and raw materials."

Further, Strube said he now expected the second quarter to show "only very moderate growth in sales and earnings". This was a marginally more downbeat forecast than he gave just one week ago at the first quarter results announcement when he predicted "only a slight increase" in second quarter earnings.

Strube repeated that BASF's strong first quarter results - with sales up 7% and income from operations up more than 15% - should not be taken to indicate full year performance, because much of the earnings increase was due to the high oil price and customer stockpiling.

By: Peter Mitchell
+44 20 8652 3214

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