By Dimitri Rhodes
(Reuters) – Belgian chemicals group Solvay said on Wednesday it expected its 2024 core profit decline to be closer to 10%, at the positive end of its guidance range, even as negative pricing trends and soft demand were set to persist into the final quarter.
Solvay, which spun off speciality chemicals firm Syensqo last year, also predicted some potential seasonality effects towards the end of the year.
The company had previously guided for a 10% to 15% decline in its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).
It reported underlying EBITDA of 259 million euros ($278.7 million) for the third quarter, little changed from last year and ahead of analysts’ forecast of 250 million euros in a Vara consensus, aided by positive volume developments and cost saving initiatives.
Solvay has been cutting costs due to soft demand and a volatile macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, aiming to save 300 million euros by 2028.
Most recently, it said it planned to close its Salindres site in France in 2025, which would lead to a loss of 68 jobs.
“The first half of the year benefitted from opportunistic sales and restocking effects, while, as anticipated, we have not observed any improvement in the third quarter of 2024,” CEO Philippe Kehren said in the statement.
($1 = 0.9294 euros)
(This story has been corrected to clarify that the profit decline is expected at shallow end of guidance range, not the steeper one, and the 2024 core profit decline to be closer to 10%, not 15%, in the headline and paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
