MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemicals and seed producer DuPont's quarterly profit topped analysts' estimates as the company intensifies its cost-cutting efforts ahead of its merger with Dow Chemical Co, as per Reuters.
DuPont said it was looking to cut its costs in 2016 by USD730 million from 2015-levels. The company's previous cost-reduction plan, launched under former CEO Ellen Kullman, had pegged cuts at USD1.3 billion by the end of 2016 from 2013 levels.
Both DuPont and Dow Chemical are streamlining their businesses, ahead of a merger that will create a company with an estimated combined market value of about USD95 billion as of Monday's closing. DuPont's cost-cutting measures, including a planned 10 percent reduction in its workforce of about 63,000 employees, will add about 64 cents per share to the company's 2016 profit.
The company said it expects full-year operating earnings of USD2.95-USD3.10 per share, compared with analysts' average estimate of USD3.10 per share. Excluding USD622 million of restructuring and other charges, fourth-quarter operating profit was 27 cents per share, slightly above analysts' average estimate of 26 cents.
The company said its cost-reduction efforts added 10 cents to its profit in the three months ended Dec.31. Net loss attributable to the company was USD253 million, or 29 cents per share, in the quarter, compared with a profit of USD683 million, or 74 cents per share, a year earlier.
Net sales fell 9.4 percent to USD5.3 billion.
As MRC informed earlier, in mid December 2015, Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. announced an all-stock merger of equals that’s the first step in a plan to create three new highly-focused businesses.
DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.