Chemicals maker Clariant cuts FY sales target, misses Q3 core profit view
Q3 core profit at 139 million Swiss francs
Group expects low single-digit percent decline in FY sales
Q3 sales at 991 million Swiss francs
Shares down 0.7% in pre-market
Adds sales forecast in paragraph 1, previous FY sales target in paragraph 3, analyst comment in paragraph 7, share move in paragraph 8
By Ozan Ergenay
Oct 29 (Reuters) -Swiss specialty chemicals maker Clariant CLN.S cut its 2024 sales target on Tuesday and reported third-quarter core profit below expectations, weighed down by lower volumes in its catalysts business and restructuring charges.
The group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell 13% year-on-year to 139 million Swiss francs ($160.69 million) in the quarter, missing analysts' average estimate of 150 million Swiss francs in a company-provided poll.
Clariant said it now expects a low-single-digit percent fall in local currency sales this year with an EBITDA margin of around 16%, having previously forecast full-year sales to be flat or to show up to low-single digit percentage growth.
Chemical companies have been under pressure for more than a year and have been prompted to reduce their inventories on lower demand from industrial clients as energy prices soared.
"We achieved growth in our Adsorbents & Additives and Care Chemicals businesses while maintaining pricing discipline in all businesses," CEO Conrad Keijzer said in a statement.
"However, lower-than-expected catalysts volumes impacted group sales, EBITDA margin, and our full-year sales outlook."
Clariant's third-quarter sales dipped 1% in local currency terms to 991 million francs, below analysts' forecast of 1.01 billion francs, according to a company-provided poll.
"Third-quarter sales were slightly better than our estimates, but lower than consensus," Vontobel analyst Sibylle Bischofberger said in a note, seeing the quarterly results as slightly negative.
Sales in the catalysts division, which provides catalytic products for the chemical industry, fell by 20% in local currency to 203 million Swiss francs.
Shares in the company were down 0.7% in Julius Baer pre-market trade as of 0720 GMT.
The Swiss company also reiterated its medium-term targets, expecting an EBITDA margin of 17%-18% and free cash flow conversion at the targeted level of around 40% for 2025.
($1 = 0.8650 Swiss francs)
Reporting by Ozan Ergenay; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Jan Harvey
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