LANXESS: EBITDA pre exceptionals for the fourth quarter significantly above market expectation

Specialty chemicals company LANXESS expects to have achieved about EUR 159 million EBITDA pre exceptionals for the fourth quarter 2024. This significantly exceeds market expectation of currently EUR 130 million (VARA consensus) by 22 percent.

EBITDA pre exceptionals for the full year 2024 is therefore expected to amount to around EUR 614 million, approximately 20 percent above prior year’s level and at the upper end of the previously guided range of 10-20 percent growth.

The fourth quarter was positively influenced by a stronger than expected December, in particular due to customers’ pre-buying. This pull-forward effect occurred mainly in the U.S. for products of the segments Specialty Additives and Consumer Protection.

The underlying macroeconomic environment going into 2025 has however not improved.

The fiscal year 2024 will end with around EUR 2.4 billion net financial debt compared to EUR 2.5 billion at the end of 2023.

"We are pleased that volumes have increased at the end of the year, even though this was supported by pull-forward effects mainly from the U.S. region. Nevertheless, we do not yet see any economic recovery across the board in our customer industries. What is important to us is that we have further reduced our debt in these volatile times," said Matthias Zachert, Chairman of the Board of Management of LANXESS AG.

LANXESS will release its final results for the fourth quarter 2024 and the fiscal year 2024 on March 20, 2025. All figures provided in this release are preliminary and unaudited.