Brenntag a little more confident after record profit for 2022

DUSSELDORF (Reuters) – Chemicals distributor Brenntag is more optimistic about 2022 despite pressure on supply chains and higher costs after posting a record profit at the start of the year.

“We are reporting the best results our company has ever achieved in a quarter,” said CEO Christian Kohlpaintner on Wednesday. “The successful passing on of sometimes considerable price increases on the procurement side while at the same time maintaining the ability to deliver led to an overall positive business development.” As expected, Brenntag Specialties grew much faster than Brenntag Essentials with its large volumes of industrial chemicals.

“Overall, we expect a strong first half of 2022,” said the manager. In view of the unpredictability of the war and price developments, a forecast for the second half of the year is hardly possible. However, Brenntag has so far proven that it can cope with the major challenges. “Despite the high degree of uncertainty, especially for the second half of the year, we now expect to achieve an operating EBITDA in the upper range of our forecast for the whole of 2022.” Kohlpaintner had announced an operating result (Ebitda) of 1.45 to 1.55 billion euros.

In the first quarter, Ebitda jumped by almost half to 463 million euros with sales of 4.53 (previous year: 3.13) billion euros. The news was well received by investors: the Dax value rose by around 2.5 percent to 68.86 euros. “The first quarter went much better than expected,” commented one trader.