K+S Group, Kassel, this week raised its full-year EBITDA forecast for 2021, and now is expecting an EBITDA range of €700 million to €800 million, up from the previous forecast of €500 million to €600 million. The full-year EBITDA, if achieved, beats the average analyst estimate of €609.8 million, according to a Bloomberg Consensus (range €363.0 million to €842.0 million).
K+S cited a continued improvement in prices and demand for fertilizers, as well as a strong industrial business. It said production is also running “at full speed,” and that costs have been reduced.
Both sets of guidance include the forecast one-off gain associated with the REKS joint venture waste management transaction of about €200 million (GM Dec. 31, 2020).
Full-year EBITDA in 2019 was €267 million.
The increase in its full-year 2021 guidance follows the company’s announcement last month of expectations of “a significantly above last year” second-quarter EBITDA, at €110 million, more than double the previous year’s €52.7 million (GM July 23, p. 27). Analyst expectations were for a €92.9 million second-quarter EBITDA.
K+S is due to publish its complete half-year financial report on Aug. 12.
The company now expects the completion of the antitrust review of the REKS jv in the fourth quarter of this year, later than the previous expectation of this summer. K+S and Germany’s Remex GmbH reached an agreement in December last year to partner up to bundle their respective waste management activities in a new jv, REKS GmbH & Co. KG, in which both companies are equal partners each with 50 percent participation.