MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical Co, whose merger with DuPont is now likely to close early next year rather than end-2016, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as it benefited from its focus on consumer markets such as automotive and electronics, reported Reuters.
Dow Chemical's shares rose 2 percent to USD54.86, their highest this year.
The USD130 billion Dow-DuPont merger is being probed by regulators around the world, with EU antitrust officials expected to decide by Feb. 6 whether to approve it.
"Based on where we are with the regulatory process, Q1 2017 is the most likely outcome, though I won't rule out the end of the year," Chief Financial Officer Howard Ungerleider told Reuters.
The merger is expected to face intense scrutiny over combining the companies' agricultural businesses, which sell seeds, insecticides and pesticides.
But the companies have previously said the agrichemicals businesses have little overlap, and any asset sales required to get regulatory clearances would be minor.
Dow Chemical is benefiting from its strategy to focus on consumer markets by selling billions of dollars of volatile, commodity assets over the years, including the USD5 billion divestiture of most of its chlorine business.
The company is on track to realize 70 percent of its USD400 million cost-cutting target by the first half of next year, on a run-rate basis, Ungerleider said on a post-earnings call.
Dow Chemical said it had realized more than USD200 million of savings on an annualized run-rate basis.
Net income attributable to Dow's shareholders slumped 44 percent to USD719 million, or 63 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Sept.30, from a year earlier.
The year-ago quarter included a 32 cents per share gain from the sale of a unit that made chemicals to keep farm produce fresh.
A 6 percent rise in sales volumes, adjusted for acquisitions and divestitures, helped the company report a 3.7 percent rise in sales to USD12.48 billion, above estimates of USD11.96 billion.
The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber. In 2014, Dow had annual sales of more than USD58 billion and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide.
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