Wacker Q2 EBITDA up, affirms 2007 outlook

02 August 2007 07:18  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--German chemicals company Wacker Chemie on Thursday confirmed full-year 2007 sales and earnings target as second quarter earnings before interest and tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 33% year-on-year.

It expected full-year sales growth to exceed 10%, with a higher EBITDA margin than last year, Munich-headquartered Wacker Chemie said in a statement.

The Munich-based company reported second quarter EBITDA of €260.8m ($357.3m) from €195.7m in the same quarter a year ago.

"Strong customer demand is the prime driver of our continued dynamic growth and we are responding to this demand via strategi production-capacity expansion projects, CEO Peter-Alexander Wacker said in a statement.

"Despite additional burdens from raw material and currency markets, we have significantly surpassed last year’s earnings again."

Second quarter sales rose 15% to €959m while net income soared 95% to €130m.

Asia and Europe were the largest contributors to Wacker’s sales in the second quarter. Its second quarter sales in Asia grew 46% to €328.7m while Europe sales, excluding Germany, grew 9% to €271.5m.

The Americas and Germany contributed sales of €160.0m and€168.4m respectively.

In the rest of the world, the company posted April to June revenues of €29.5m – a year-on-year growth of 10%.

Second quarter sales at the firm’s fine chemicals segment dipped 1.4% to €27.6m as standard products and customised fine chemicals sales declined while its polymers division saw sales grew 14% to €161.7m due to growth in the construction sector.

Sales at its Silicones, Polysilicon and Siltronic units also increased.

Business was expected to remain robust over the rest of the year, the company said, but does not expect second half results to match the first six months’ due to several scheduled plant shutdowns and declining demand for 200mm wafers.

($1 = €0.73)

By: Jeanne Lim
+65 6780 4359

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