The chemical company BASF narrowly missed its operating profit target in the past financial year.
According to preliminary figures, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) adjusted for special items rose to 7.9 billion euros after 7.7 billion euros in the previous year, as the group announced. Most recently, the DAX group expected adjusted EBITDA to be at the lower end of the target range of 8.0 to 8.6 billion euros. Analysts had unanimously expected adjusted EBITDA of 7.9 billion euros.
Sales are expected to have fallen from 68.9 billion euros in the previous year to 65.3 billion euros. This is in line with analysts’ average estimate. While volumes increased slightly, sales prices fell, with prices steadily recovering over the course of the year compared to the same quarter in the previous year. Sales development was impacted by currency effects.
While cash flow from operating activities was expected to fall from EUR 8.1 billion to EUR 6.9 billion, free cash flow of EUR 0.7 billion was above the forecast range of EUR 0.1 to 0.6 billion and also above analyst consensus . Payments for intangible assets and property, plant and equipment increased significantly, but were lower than expected. In 2023, free cash flow amounted to EUR 2.7 billion.
Profit after taxes and third-party interests is expected to be below analysts’ consensus estimates. This is impacted by non-cash impairments, particularly on battery materials in the Surface Technologies segment, as well as restructuring expenses in all segments. BASF cannot currently provide a value for this earnings figure because the contributions from an equity investment are not yet available. However, the group assumes that it will not reach the analyst consensus of 2.2 billion euros. However, the consolidated profit after taxes and third parties of 225 million euros in 2023 will be significantly exceeded.
The BASF Group’s financial figures for 2024 will be published on February 28th.
The BASF share rose 1.42 percent to 46.45 euros in after-hours trading on Tradegate.
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