Lanxess raises full-year guidance

Lanxess AG has lifted its full-year guidance for 2011 on the back of strong second quarter results. The German specialty chemicals company now expects its EBITDA pre-exceptionals to grow about 20 per cent year-on-year after previously forecasting a growth of 10 to 15 per cent. During the second quarter the company’s EBITDA pre-exceptionals rose 26 per cent year-on-year to 339 million euros.

“Our clear focus on innovative, premium products as well as emerging regions, coupled with our established and proven price-before-volume strategy, has again yielded outstanding results,” said Axel C. Heitmann, chairman of Lanxess’s Board of Management. “Notably, our synthetic rubber and high-tech plastics business profited from their exposure to the megatrend mobility.”

Company sales increased 23 per cent year-on-year to 2.2 billion euros, with price increases implemented in all segments in order to fully pass on higher raw material costs. EBITDA margin pre-exceptionals rose to 15.1 per cent in the second quarter from 14.7 per cent a year earlier and net profit increased 38 per cent year-on-year to 181 million euros.