Clariant: first-quarter results in line, shares drop

(CercleFinance.com) - Clariant delivered 7% growth in both first-quarter sales and profitability, with the Swiss specialty chemicals company saying that it was on track to achieve its targets.


First quarter sales rose to 1.7 billion Swiss francs, compared to 1.6 billion Swiss francs one year earlier. This corresponds to 7% growth in local currency as well as in Swiss francs.

EBITDA before exceptional items also rose by 7% in Swiss francs, in line with the consensus, reaching 268 million Swiss francs compared to 250 million the previous year.

For 2018, Clariant said it is confident that it will achieve growth in local currency, as well as progression in operating cash flow, absolute EBITDA and its EBITDA margin before exceptional items.

This uninspiring report prompted some profit taking on the Zurich-listed share, which dropped 4.8% this morning. Note that the stock is still up 24% over the past year.

Copyright (c) 2018 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.