Clariant: net profit up in 2017, dividend raised

(CercleFinance.com) - Clariant said on Wednesday that its FY 2017 net profit increased 15%, thanks to a rise in sales, prompting the Swiss firm to increase its dividend.


The chemical firm said profit for the past year came in at 302 million Swiss francs, up from 263 million Swiss francs a year ago.

Sales grew to 6.4 billion Swiss francs, compared to 5.8 billion Swiss francs in 2016, up 9% growth in local currency. Organic growth reached 6%, driven by higher volume.

For 2018, Clariant is confident in achieving growth in local currency, as well as an improvement in its operating cash flow, absolute EBITDA and EBITDA margin before extraordinary items, it said.

Another piece of good news is that the group has announced that it will increase its dividend by 11% to 0.50 Swiss francs per share.

The SIX-listed Clariant stock was not moving much higher after these figures were unveiled, inching up 0.2% at 25 Swiss francs.

"Shares already trade close to fair value," one analyst said this morning.

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