Lanxess AG has lifted its full-year guidance for 2011 on the back of strong second quarter results.
The German specialty chemicals company now expects its EBITDA pre-exceptionals to grow about 20% year-on-year after previously forecasting a growth of 10% to 15%. During the second quarter the company’s EBITDA pre-exceptionals rose 26% year-on-year to 339 million euros.
“Our clear focus on innovative, premium products as well as emerging regions, coupled with our established and proven price-before-volume strategy, has again yielded outstanding results,” said Axel Heitmann, chairman of Lanxess’s board of management. “Notably, our synthetic rubber and high-tech plastics business profited from their exposure to the mega-trend mobility.”
Company sales increased 23% year-on-year to 2.2 billion euros, with price increases implemented in all segments in order to fully pass on higher raw material costs. EBITDA margin pre-exceptionals rose to 15.1% in the second quarter from 14.7% a year earlier, and net profit increased 38% year-on-year to 181 million euros. (Tyres & Accessories)