MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Wacker Chemie AG (WKCMY.PK, WKCMF.PK) were losing around 2 percent in German trading after the company said Tuesday that it currently expects its sales, EBITDA and EBITDA margin for fiscal 2020 to be below last year's level, hurt by coronavirus pandemic.
The Munich-based chemical group said its incoming orders and sales are down, and that it cannot reliably estimate now how long the pandemic's effects will last.
During the virtual Annual Shareholders' Meeting, Rudolf Staudigl, President and CEO, discussed the pandemic's economic effects.
He said, 'The coronavirus struck the economy without warning, and with full impact. The costs are expected to surpass anything ever before seen in the economic and financial crises of recent decades.'
WACKER expects its chemical business would stabilize during the second half of the year, so long as a second wave of infection does not once more shut down public life.
The company further said it is distributing a total of 24.8 million euros in dividends to its shareholders for 2019. The dividend per dividend-bearing share is 0.50 euro.
In Germany, Wacker Chemie shares were trading at 77.86 euros, down 1.62 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX