ICIS Top 100 charts strong 2007 for chemicals

15 September 2008 11:49  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Chemical company sales and profits rose sharply in 2007 and returns advanced despite the run-up in the cost of oil and energy, according to the latest ICIS Top 100 listing of chemical company financial performance revealed on Monday.

Published in ICIS chemical business (ICB), the Top 100 shows sector sales rose by 11% in 2007 in local currency terms and 18.1% when converted to US dollars.

The top five chemical companies by sales in 2007 were BASF, Dow Chemical, the chemicals arms of ExxonMobil and Shell and the newly-created LyondellBasell, according to ICIS.

Operating profits across the sector climbed by more than 12%. The average operating margin increase was 6%.

The top 100 table is available to download in pdf format with the full ICB article here.

Chemical companies were hit by significantly higher feedstock and energy costs in 2007 and in the first months of 2008 but cost pass-though was achieved to a great extent.

The world’s leading agrochemicals players showed some of the strongest gains in topline and profits growth.

The world’s largest processed phosphate fertilizer producer, Mosaic, reported one of the strongest year-on-year sales increases for its financial year ended on 31 May 2008.

The company’s results overall demonstrated the fact the fertilizer upturn continued strongly into 2008.

Yara, Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) and Givaudan were among the companies to have grown most strongly in 2007, the latter two companies boosted by acquisition.

SABIC acquired most of GE’s plastics businesses later in the year. Givaudan had earlier acquired ICI’s fragrances business Quest.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity reached a peak in 2007 in value terms, if not in total number of deals.

Some of the largest deals in recent history were reached including the SABIC/GE plastics and the merger of Lyondell and Basell. Other focused acquisitions reinforced the strength of companies such as INEOS.

By year-end, Akzo Nobel was close to completing its acquisition of paints maker ICI.

Strong commodities-driven growth and M&A activity continued to reshape the sector.

Company	Rank	Foot note	Sales			Operating profit or EBIT			Net profit
			($m)	% Change	% Change	($m)	% Change	% Change	($m)	% Change	% Change
				(local	(US		(local	(US		(local	(US
				currency)	dollars)		currency)	dollars)		currency)	dollars)
BASF	1		85353	10.2	22.9	10775	8.4	20.9	5987	26.4	41.1
Dow Chemical	2		53513	8.9	8.9	4229	-14.9	-14.9	2887	-22.5	-22.5
ExxonMobil	3	b	53417	9.1	9.1	5546	-3.3	-3.3	4563	4.1	4.1
Shell	4	b	45911	12.7	12.7	2447	106.8	106.8	2051	92.8	92.8
LyondellBasell Industries (Pro Forma)	5	c	44735	n/a	24.0	1826	-3.2	-3.2	168		-69.5
INEOS	6		40527	3.5	15.5	1783	31.3	46.5	488	187.8	221.1
SABIC	7		33724	46.2	46.5	10968	32.9	33.2	7221	33.2	33.4
Sinopec	8	b	32998	12.0	19.7
Mitsubishi Chemical	9	d	29532	11.7	34.0	1260	-2.8	16.7	1654	63.5	96.2
DuPont	10		29378	7.1	7.1	3743	12.4	12.4	2988	-5.1	-5.1
Total	11	b	29170	3.6	15.6	1701	-4.9	6.0	1248	-4.2	6.9
Bayer	12	e	25890	2.0	13.8	2342	9.7	22.4
Akzo Nobel  (Pro Forma Akzo Nobel - ICI)	13	c	21271			1361			1172
Evonik	14	f	21253	2.2	14.0	1367	58.4	76.7	1290	-16.3	-6.6
Yara International	15		19420	52.0	52.0
Sumitomo Chemical	16	d	19117	6.0	27.1	1032	-26.7	-12.0	636	-32.8	-19.4
Mitsui Chemicals	17	d	18010	5.8	27.0	778	-15.8	1.0	250	-52.6	-43.1
Linde	18	g	17614	15.2	28.5	3762	15.7	29.1
ChemChina (China National Chemical Corporation)	19	q	17400	69.6	69.6
Air Liquide	20		17381	7.8	20.2	2648	46.9	63.9	1654	12.1	25.0

Footnotes: a: Key financial year-end exchange rates used for 2007 data (2006 in brackets): $/€ 1.473 (1.32), Yen/$ 99.2 (119.0), $/£ 1.995 (1.959); b: chemical segment figures only. Includes intersegment revenues eg revenue for sales to other divisions of by-products, etc. For ExxonMobil, intersegment revenue was $16,591m in 2007 and $14,846m in 2006. Sinopec = external sales with inter-segment sales. Total restated figures to exclude the contribution from Arkema; c: pro-forma results for 2007. Lyondell and Basell completed a $19.4bn (€13.6bn) merger. 2006 figures based on the sum of Lyondell and Basell. Akzo Nobel = pro-forma results. Akzo Nobel acquired ICI in January 2008. Quattor Participacoes = a joint venture of Unipar and Petrobras launched on 12 June 2008; d: financial year end 31 March 2008; e: Bayer data exclude HealthCare division with 2007 sales of €14.8bn. Solvay data excludes pharmaceutical business with €2.6bn sales in 2007; f: Evonik was formerly known as Degussa. g: Linde = gas and engineering figures only. Prior year 2006 figures include 12 months of BOC; h: DSM = sales, operating result = total business segment figures; i: estimated figures as BP does not segment chemical data; j: petrochemical figures only.

The Top 100 analysis will be extended over the next few weeks to include a look at the leading players by region and some of the most important financial metrics for companies in the sector. ICIS will make its Chemical Company of the Year Award based on the latter analysis with details published in ICIS chemical business.

Download the full table and ICB article
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By: Nigel Davis
+44 20 8652 3214

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