MOSCOW (MRC) -- Avient, formerly PolyOne, said today that it is increasing its forecast for fourth-quarter adjusted earnings to 48 cents/share, from 40 cents/share previously. This compares with fourth-quarter 2019 adjusted earnings of 34 cents/share, said Chemweek.
Sales were up 5.4% YOY in October and November on a pro-forma basis, including the addition of Clariant’s masterbatches business, which Avient acquired in July. “We expect to achieve…fourth quarter adjusted EPS of approximately USD0.48 as recovering demand conditions around the world exceed the traditional seasonality we normally see this time of year,” says Avient chairman and CEO Robert Patterson. “Overall demand is better than we initially estimated in every region of the world, and we are capturing synergies related to our acquisition of Clariant Masterbatch."
Avient says it will end the year with about USD600 million in cash, which it expects to use for bolt-on acquisitions and share buybacks. The company’s board has authorized a 5-million-share increase of the company’s share repurchase program, bringing the program’s total authorization to 6 million shares. Avient expects 2020 pro-forma revenues, including the Clariant masterbatches business, to total about USD3.7 billion.
The announcement could be a sign of a restocking cycle, according to Laurence Alexander, an analyst with Jefferies (New York, New York). “Demand trends are running above normal seasonality in every region,” Alexander says. “We expect broad-based strength to be a theme across the chemical sector this winter."
As MRC informed earlier, Avient Corporation launched ColorForward 2022. This 16th edition of the annual color forecasting guide for the plastics industry marks its debut within Avient, which was formed this year from legacy businesses PolyOne and Clariant Masterbatch.
We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in October 2020 by 7.2% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals grew in the first ten months of 2020 by 6.3% year on year, according to Rosstat's data. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the January-October output. October production of polymers in primary form grew to 857,000 tonnes from 852,000 tonnes in September. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 8,340,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 17% year on year.
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