MOSCOW (MRC) -- German chemicals giant BASF SE reported that its second-quarter net income grew 37 percent to 1.50 billion euros from 1.09 billion euros in the year-ago period, said the company on its web-site.
Earnings per share rose to 1.63 euros from 1.19 euros last year. Adjusted earnings per share amounted to 1.78 euros, compared to the prior year's 1.30 euros.
Income from operations or EBIT before special items rose 32 percent to 2.3 billion euros. Sales increased 12 percent from last year to 16.26 billion euros, reflecting higher prices and volumes.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2017, BASF said it now takes a somewhat more positive overall view of the underlying conditions for the year, due to the positive macroeconomic development in the first half of the year.
Dr. Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF said, "We continue to expect a considerable increase in sales for the full year - by at least 6%. Given the considerable earnings increase in the first six months of the year, we now expect a considerable increase in EBIT before special items of at least 11% for 2017."
Earlier, the company had said it wants to achieve slightly higher EBIT before special items compared with 2016, with 'slight' meaning a change of 1 to 10 percent.
As MRC informed earlier, within the next five years, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) plans to invest globally more than EUR200 million in its plastic additives business, approximately half of which in Asia, focusing on capacity expansions and operational excellence.
BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of over EUR74 billion in 2014 and over 113,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC