Dow targets EPS of over $3 in next downturn

28 March 2008 15:18  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--US-based Dow Chemical is aiming to achieve earnings per share (EPS) of well over $3 in the next industry downturn as it works to reposition its business away from the ups and down of the petrochemicals cycle, CEO Andrew Liveris said on Friday.

 

“My commitment to our stockholders is that at the next industry trough, Dow Chemical will have an earnings profile that is well north of $3 per share and we will provide steady earnings growth beyond that point," Liveris wrote in his annual letter to shareholders.

 

As a result of strategic actions and its discipline, Dow was now positioned to move away from the ethylene-driven troughs that plagued its earnings profile for so long and transition to an earnings-growth company, he said in reviewing 2007.

 

The $3 EPS target for a trough compares with EPS of $2.99 Dow reported in 2007, on sales of $53.5bn and net income of $2.9bn, and EPS of $3.82 in 2006, on sales of $49.1bn and net income of $3.7bn.

 

The letter, along with Dow’s 2007 annual report published earlier on Friday, are available at on the company's website.

 

Dow's shares were priced at $36.90 in early Friday morning trading in New York, up marginally by 0.5% from Thursday's closing price.

 

($1 = €0.63)

By: Stefan Baumgarten
+1 713 525 2653

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