The chemical company Covestro is feeling the full impact of the increased energy prices. The people of Leverkusen could hardly pass this on to their customers. The DAX group only narrowly avoided slipping into the red.
High raw material and energy costs hit the plastics group Covestro in the summer. With an increase in sales for the year of 7.3 percent to 4.6 billion euros, the operating result (Ebitda) collapsed by two thirds to 302 million euros, as the group announced. Covestro was only able to pass on the increased costs to a small extent, it said.
“Despite the significant burdens from the very high energy and raw material prices, we achieved our self-imposed Ebitda forecast in the third quarter,” said CFO Thomas Toepfer. “Based on these results, we continue to assume that we will also achieve the goals we have set ourselves for the year as a whole.”
The bottom line is that the Leverkusen team was just in the black with twelve million euros, after a surplus of 472 million euros a year ago. The free operating cash flow, i.e. the money that ultimately gets stuck with Covestro in day-to-day business, fell by more than 90 percent to 33 million euros.
For the current year, the Dax group is now expecting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) of between 1.7 billion and 1.8 billion euros, after previously 1.7 to 2.2 billion euros had been on the list . On average, analysts expect a good 1.8 billion euros.
