MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Wacker Chemie (WKCMY.PK, WKCMF.PK) reported that its net income for fiscal year 2020 was 202.3 million euros or 3.81 euros per share compared to a loss of 629.6 million euros or 12.94 euros per share in the previous year.
Group EBIT or earnings before interest and taxes were 262.8 million euros compared to negative 536.3 million euros in 2019. The strong year-over-year rise stemmed primarily from an impairment charge of 760.0 million euros that the company recognized on the carrying amount of its polysilicon production facilities in 2019.
Annual EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined to 666.3 million euros from 783.4 million euros in the prior year. The decline was due to a special payment received in 2019. That year WACKER had booked, under cost of goods sold, 112.5 million euros in insurance compensation for the damage incurred following the incident at the Charleston (USA) plant in 2017.
Sales for fiscal year 2020 declined to 4.69 billion euros from 4.93 billion euros in the previous year.
The company expects to post Group sales of almost 1.3 billion euros in the first-quarter of 2021, compared to 1.20 billion euros reported last year.
Group EBITDA for the first-quarter of 2021 is likely to be substantially above last year's level of 174.1 million euros, benefiting mainly from strong demand for polysilicon and construction-sector products, and from generally lower production costs.
The company expects to post growth in 2021. The company aims to lift its sales by a mid-single-digit percentage, primarily due to volume growth. The Group's EBITDA is likely to rise 10 to 20 percent compared with 2020. On the other hand, higher raw-material costs and negative exchange-rate effects are likely to slow EBITDA by more than 100 million euros. Group net income will be substantially above last year's figure.
The company said it intends to achieve annual savings of about 250 million euros as from the end of 2022 by reducing non-personnel costs and cutting around 1,200 jobs in WACKER's administrative departments and in the divisions' non-operational functions.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX