Swiss Clariant Q4 net income jumps 65%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Swiss speciality chemicals maker Clariant said it would not achieve a key margin target in 2015, as it posted a year-on-year rise in quarterly net profit, said the producer in its press release.

The Basel-based company is targeting a margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before exceptional items of between 16% and 19%.

"In light of the volatile economic conditions, Clariant currently does not anticipate achieving its mid-term EBITDA margin target in 2015," the company said in a statement, adding that it expected to raise its EBITDA margin before exceptional items above the 14.2 percent achieved in 2014.

Clariant posted a fourth-quarter net result from continuing operations of 133 million Swiss francs (USD142.20 million), up from 85 million francs over the corresponding period last year.

As MRC wrote before, Clariant announced that it has signed a purchase agreement with VitaPac, a Chinese specialist for healthcare packaging. The owner-led company with 80 employees is based in Hong Kong with a production site in Dongguan, China. It had consolidated sales of about CHF 4.0 million in 2013 (USD4.2 million).

Clariant Chemicals (India) Limited and custom color and additive products with production of more than 10,000 color matches which are completed each year. With more than 50 manufacturing plants around the world, Clariant
Masterbatches products, technology and service deliver competitive advantages that foster long-term customer relationships.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the German chemicals giant, has obtained another Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification for cosmetic ingredients in accordance with the requirements of the European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients (EFfCI), as per the company's press release.

Now BASF’s largest site worldwide for the production of ingredients for the personal care industry in Dusseldorf-Holthausen, has also successfully passed the audit. The certification confirms that strict guidelines for product quality and industrial hygiene requirements are followed here during the manufacturing process. Eleven BASF sites where cosmetic ingredients are manufactured currently have a similar certificate. By 2018, the company strives to have GMP certification for all relevant production sites for cosmetic ingredients worldwide.

"Today more than ever, consumers expect that their personal care products include high quality and safe cosmetic ingredients. Our customers, cosmetics manufacturers, are faced with the challenge to prove that they meet these requirements," explained Jan-Peter Sander, Senior Vice President of Personal Care Europe. "GMP certification confirms the high production standards and the excellent quality of cosmetic ingredients produced at our Dusseldorf-Holthausen site."

The GMP guidelines for cosmetic ingredients provide important guidance for manufacturers seeking consistently high quality standards. The standards are established and regularly refined by the EFfCI - a European industry association that was founded in 2000 and represents the collective interests of more than 100 manufacturers of cosmetic ingredients in Europe.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2014, BASF and Archroma agreed on the sale of BASF’s global textile chemicals business to Archroma, a supplier of specialty chemicals to the textile, paper and emulsions industries. Archroma is a portfolio company of SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm with focus on the specialty materials, chemicals and healthcare sectors. It is planned to integrate the business into the Archroma Textile Chemicals Specialties business. Currently, the textile chemicals business is part of BASF’s Performance Chemicals division.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It 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 about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexican state oil company Pemex said that it will transport mostly processed gasoline and diesel fuel through its pipelines in a bid to cut down on rampant fuel theft, said Reuters.

Pemex says it will finish processing the fuels at its storage terminals according to the plan, which will not be fully implemented nationwide for two months, a spokesperson said. Unfinished fuels are not suitable for use in cars and industrial plants.

The move is aimed at dissuading the country's motorists and industrial users from buying stolen gasoline from non-authorized sellers. The oil company said it lost 17 billion pesos (USD1.14 billion) last year due to fuel theft, more than double what it lost in 2013.

Last month, several sectors suffered fuel shortages as a consequence of fuel robbery through illegal taps in its sprawling network of pipelines, which often result in explosions and spills.

Pemex has admitted that workers, former employees, drug cartels and business people have been involved in the thefts.

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2014, Pemex and Exxon Mobil Corp signed a non-commercial agreement to jointly explore potential upstream and downstream business opportunities.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Danish brewer Carlsberg named a new chief executive on Wednesday and warned that problems in Russia and Ukraine would weigh on earnings again this year, said Reuters.

Dutchman Cees ’t Hart, the head of dairy company FrieslandCampina, will become Carlsberg chief executive in June. He replaces Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen who turns 60 this year and had told the board that he wanted to take a step back into non-executive roles.

"It's a decision we both agreed upon is the right thing for Carlsberg, and also right for Jorgen to move on in his non-executive career," Chairman Flemming Besenbacher told reporters. For seven years Rasmussen has fought a tough battle as sales in Russia, Carlsberg's main market after the acquisition of the Baltika brand in 2004, had been affected by tighter regulations and more recently a sanctions-hit economy.

"Maybe his energy has been exhausted, and this change will definitely bring a breath of fresh air into the company," analyst Morten Imsgard from Sydbank said. New CEO 't Hart has run FrieslandCampina, one of the world's largest dairy companies, for six years and steered the group through a large merger and substantial growth in Asia, a key focus area for Carlsberg as well.

Prior to that he had worked for consumer goods company Unilever for 25 years.

Carlsberg reported a 22 percent fall in fourth-quarter operating profit, hit by 32 percent lower sales in Eastern Europe mainly due to problems in Russia. Operating profit before special items dropped to 1.79 billion crowns (USD276 million) from 2.3 billion crowns a year earlier, missing analysts' forecasts for 1.93 billion crowns. Its shares fell two percent.

The world's fourth largest brewer expects underlying operating profit to grow by less than 10 percent this year when its eastern European operations will again act as a brake. "While we expect our Western Europe and Asia regions to continue their positive development, the expected GDP decline and currency devaluation in Russia and Ukraine will put significant pressure on the group's overall performance," Carlsberg said.

As MRC wrote before, Arkema, a France-based chemical manufacturer and the expert in glass bottle coating solutions, has joined Carlsberg’s program to develop next generation of high quality packaging products, called "upcycling".

Carlsberg's large global competitors, Anheuser-Busch Inbev, SABMiller and Heineken, are less dependent on the Russian market than the Danish brewer. Carlsberg said in January that it had decided to close down two of its 10 breweries in Russia, a market that has declined more than 30 percent since 2008.

However, outgoing CEO Rasmussen told reporters that leaving Russia was not an option for Carlsberg.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, the world’s biggest maker of polypropylene plastic, has announced that its Supervisory Board has authorized the company's Management Board to declare an interim dividend of USD0.70 per share, reported the company on its site.

The interim dividend will be paid March 16, 2015 to shareholders of record March 2, 2015 with an ex-dividend date of February 26, 2015.

As MRC informed previously, in November 2014, LyondellBasell Industries said "tight" markets for its products may stall the narrower margins that it expects will ultimately come from lower oil prices.

LyondellBasell Industries NV is a manufacturing company. The company produces chemicals, fuels, and polymers used for packaging, clean fuels, durable textiles, medical applications, construction materials, and automotive parts. LyondellBasell Industries operates globally and is headquartered in the Netherlands. LyondellBasell is also a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies. The more than 250 polyolefin process licenses granted by LyondellBasell are twice that of any other polyolefin technology licensor.
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