Huntsman records $179 million net income for Q3 FY17

The adjusted EBITDA was impacted by $50 million from Hurricane Harvey, compared to $234 million in the prior year period and $299 million in the prior quarter.

The increase in revenues in the company's textile effects segment for the three months ended September 30, 2017 compared to the same period of 2016 was due to higher sales volumes, partially offset by lower average selling prices. Sales volumes increased in both textile chemicals and dyes, particularly in the Asian region. Average selling prices decreased primarily due to competitive market conditions. The increase in segment adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to higher sales volumes and lower fixed costs, partially offset by lower margins.

"Notwithstanding a $50 million impact from Hurricane Harvey on our third quarter EBITDA, our business was up $113 million over last year. Our business is operating at a 16 per cent EBITDA margin to sales. Excluding the impact from Harvey, each one of our businesses performed well, growing adjusted EBITDA versus the prior year, as our underlying fundamentals remain positive across our core markets," said Peter R Huntsman, president and chief executive officer.

"I expect each of our businesses to show year over year growth in the fourth quarter as well.  In addition to our strong operating performance in the third quarter, we successfully completed the IPO of our pigments and additives segment, now called Venator, and the $1.2 billion in the initial proceeds were used to reduce our leverage. We also paid down an additional $100 million in debt from free cash flow earlier this week. We are delivering on our commitments to our shareholders, as to date we have generated over $1 billion in free cash flow and reduced our net-debt by over $2 billion since 2016, while at the same time investing in our differentiated and specialty businesses," explained  Huntsman.

"While I am disappointed that the merger of equals agreement with Clariant has been terminated, Huntsman's future has never been brighter as our businesses continue to improve across the board, our balance sheet is as strong as it has ever been and will get even stronger with proceeds from upcoming Venator secondary sales. We look forward to achieving investment grade metrics in the near future. Huntsman remains focused on growing our downstream differentiated and specialty businesses, expanding our margins, and generating a consistently strong free cash flow," concluded Huntsman. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India