Arkema Posts 2Q 2019 Results

Arkema reported its second quarter 2019 results. Sales were close to last year’s level at €2,254 million (€2,270 million in 2Q’18). EBITDA was €407 million, compared with the record performance of second-quarter 2018 (€430 million) in a more challenging macroeconomic environment, resulting in a very solid EBITDA margin of 18.1%. Adjusted net income of €192 million, representing 8.5% of sales. The company reported strong cash generation, with free cash flow increasing to €90 million (€41 million in 2Q’18).
 
Net debt at €1,308 million including the €190 million dividend payment, representing 0.9 times EBITDA of the last 12 months. 
 
Arkema’s Board of Directors met on July 31, 2019, to close the Group’s consolidated financial statements for the first half of 2019.
 
“In the second quarter, Arkema continued to demonstrate its resilience in an environment which remains volatile and complex, marked by the weakness of certain end-markets,” Chairman and CEO Thierry Le Hénaff said. “Our performance, close to the record highs of last year, was driven in particular by the very solid performance of our specialty businesses supported by our teams’ excellent work on prices and margins, allowing us to offset the decline in volumes. Adhesives continued to make notable progress, in line with our strong ambition in this business. Moreover, we continue to generate a high level of cash.
 
“Over the past few months, we also continued to roll out our long-term strategy focused on three pillars, namely organic projects with strong profitability, innovation to support our customers and bolt-on acquisitions generating a high level of synergies,” he added. “We notably continued to increase the share of specialties in our portfolio of businesses with the acquisitions of ArrMaz, Prochimir and Lambson, which illustrate our capacity to seize opportunities to acquire cutting-edge technologies in attractive and still fragmented markets.”