Wacker 2017 sales climb 6% to €4.92 billion

09 Feb '18

2 min read

Courtesy: Wacker Chemie AG

Wacker Chemie AG, the Munich-based chemical group, has ended fiscal 2017 with sales touching €4.92 billion, up 6 per cent in comparison to previous year. The increase was primarily due to higher volumes. The sales grew at both chemicals and polysilicon businesses compared to the previous year. The rise was particularly strong for silicones.

The group’s preliminary EBITDA reached €1.015 billion in 2017 (2016: €956 million), 6 per cent more than the year before. In addition to the strong business trend, the increase was supported by Wacker’s equity-accounted investment in Siltronic AG. For the reported period, EBIT came in at €420 million (2016: €338 million), a year-over-year rise of 24 per cent. A further positive effect here was the continued decline of depreciation, to about €590 million in 2017 (2016: €618 million).

Income from continuing operations climbed 40 per cent to about €250 million in 2017 (2016: €178 million). Wacker posted preliminary net income for the year of €885 million (2016: €189 million). It included income of €635 million from discontinued operations from the first quarter of 2017. This amount comprises the gain from deconsolidation of Siltronic as a Wacker group segment and Siltronic AG’s net income in the first quarter of 2017.

"Thanks to very robust customer demand at both our chemical and polysilicon businesses, we continued to expand sales and earnings in 2017," said group CEO Rudolf Staudigl. "We more than compensated for the marked headwinds caused by higher raw-material prices and by the euro’s strength in the second half-year. Looking back at the full year, we met or surpassed our projections for every performance indicator."

Wacker’s capital expenditures amounted to €325 million in 2017 (2016: €338 million) according to preliminary figures, a decline of 4 per cent. Investment projects included new facilities for downstream silicone products in South Korea and Brazil, the expansion of silicon-metal production at the Holla plant in Norway, construction of a new pyrogenic silica plant at the Charleston site in the US, and production-capacity expansion for dispersions and dispersible polymer powders at the Burghausen and Nanjing sites.

Net cash flow from continuing operations totaled around €360 million in 2017 (2016: €361 million), thus matching last year’s level. Net financial debt dropped substantially as expected. It amounted to €455 million as of December 31, 2017. (RR)

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