28th Jul 2020 11:50
(Alliance News) - Specialty chemicals firm Elementis PLC on Tuesday swung to a pretax loss with revenue falling due a tumbling volumes amid Covid-19.
Revenue in the six months to June 30 fell 14% year-on-year to USD386.5 million from USD449.7 million and it swung to a pretax loss of USD53.4 million from a USD48.6 million profit.
Helping drive the swing to loss were USD60.3 million of goodwill impairments, against none booked a year ago.
And as for revenue, it was down "principally due to Covid-19 related impact on second quarter volumes across industrial end markets".
Chief Executive Officer Paul Waterman said: "After a good start to the year, we have faced challenging conditions across all our businesses in the second quarter due to the impact of Covid-19."
Elementis decided against paying an interim dividend. Last year it made a 2.80 cents payout.
The company added: "Moving into the second half of the year, while near term demand visibility remains limited and business uncertainty elevated, we have seen a modest sequential demand improvement from the trough in May as countries begin to emerge from lockdown and industrial production improves.
"Nonetheless, we are focused on what we can control, namely tight cost and cash management. In 2020, the delivery of USD15 million of cost and USD7 million of working capital savings, will optimise earnings and help to significantly reduce our net debt at the year end."
Shares in the company were 3.8% lower at 76.00 pence each on London on Tuesday morning.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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