Earnings up at Lanxess
11/03/2008
Specialty chemicals company Lanxess AG significantly improved its earnings in 2007. earnings before tax rose by 6.5% to EUR 719 million (2006: EUR 675 million) and the company’s margin rose to 10.9% of earnings, compared to 9.7% in the previous year.
“This positive earnings performance shows that LANXESS has definitively achieved a turnaround. Last year we came even closer to the profitability level of our competitors,” said chairman, Axel Heitmann, on presenting the results at a press conference in Düsseldorf.
Sales for 2007 came in at EUR 6.61 billion, down 4.8% from the prior-year figure of EUR 6.94 billion. The decline in sales resulted partly from the divestment of the Lustran Polymers business unit. Higher petrochemical raw materials costs were another factor. Lanxess said that after adjusting for “currency and portfolio effects” of 9.8%, however, sales growth was 5%.
The company said it was pleased with the result its leather business unit achieved, adding that it had benefited from a favorable market environment in the Asia Pacific
region.
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