Brenntag profit boost in Q1 2014

ERJ staff report (TP)

Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany − Brenntag, the chemical distribution company, said it recorded growth in gross profit compared with the first quarter of the previous year. The two largest regions – Europe and North America – performed “particularly well”, despite extreme weather conditions in North America.

Sales amounted to €2,416.1m, corresponding to growth of 2.9 percent on a constant currency basis (-0.1 percent as reported). Year-on-year, gross profit, one of Brenntag's key performance indicators, increased by 4.4 percent on a constant currency basis (1.2 percent as reported) to €483.6m. Operating EBITDA increased by 2.8 percent on a constant currency basis (-0.4 percent as reported) to €164m.

Profit after tax totalled €72.1m in the first quarter of 2014. Consequently, the earnings per share attributable to Brenntag's shareholders amounted to €1.40 in the first quarter of 2014, thus exceeding the figure of €1.35 for the same quarter of the previous year.

The free cash flow increased to €75.7m in the period under review after €70.5m in the same period of the previous year.

Steven Holland, CEO of Brenntag AG: "While the economies in the developed regions North America and Europe are clearly recovering, the markets in the emerging regions hold challenges. This is also reflected in our results in the first quarter 2014.

“The strong performance of Europe and the positive trends in North America make us optimistic for the future. In addition, the somewhat weaker results in the two much smaller regions of Latin America and Asia-Pacific are likely to be merely temporary.

“We will keep on investing continuously in developing our business in order to strengthen and enhance our market position in all regions".

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Press release from Brenntag