All Posts from August 9, 2017

Corrected Version: Salt, South American Unit Push Compass Into Loss Column

Despite increased operating income from its Plant Nutrition North America business, Compass Minerals reported that weaker results from its Salt and Plant Nutrition South America businesses moved the company into the loss column for second-quarter 2017.

“Despite a strong performance this quarter in our Plant Nutrition North America business, our results were pressured by increased costs in the Salt segment and sluggish plant nutrition sales in South America,” said Fran Malecha, Compass Minerals’ president and CEO. “While this has been a challenging period, I am pleased with the progress we have made in positioning our plant nutrition business for growth and in aggressively identifying areas across the company for cost reductions. Because of the expected benefits of these efforts, our full-year earnings-per-share guidance remains unchanged.”

Compass reported a second-quarter net loss of $6.4 million on sales of $228 million, down from the year-ago income of $6.3 million and $169.5 million, respectively.

Second-quarter Plant Nutrition North America operating earnings were up at $7.6 million on sales of $50.5 million from the year-ago $4.7 million and $47.8 million, respectively. Fertilizer volumes were up at 78,000 st from 74,000 st, though average sales prices per ton were off at $642/st from $651/st.

Second-quarter Salt operating earnings dropped to $10.7 million from the year-ago $23.3 million.

Second-quarter Plant Nutrition South America operating earnings were $800,000 down from the year-ago pro forma $6 million. Total volumes for the South American unit were also down at 151,000 st from 187,000 st, with average prices up at $439/st from $385/st. Corrected version only changes year-ago results for Plant Nutrition South America.

Compass reported six-month net income of $15.1 million on revenues of $615.8 million, down from the year-ago $56 million and $515.2 million, respectively.

Agrium 2Q Income Off Slightly, Narrows Annual Guidance

Agrium Inc. reported 2017 second-quarter net earnings to equity holders of Agrium of $557 million ($4.03 diluted earnings per share) on sales of $6.3 billion, compared to year-ago net earnings to equity holders of $564 million ($4.08 per share) and $6.4 billion, respectively. The company said the slight reduction in net earnings was driven by weaker nitrogen and phosphate benchmark prices, which were partially offset by higher Retail earnings, strong potash results and lower fixed costs across the Wholesale business.

“Agrium continued to deliver robust results this quarter due to our integrated business model and focus on operational improvements and execution. Retail set a first half earnings record with the highest EBITDA to sales in almost a decade, while Wholesale delivered strong operational results, which together allowed us to generate $1.2-billion of EBITDA in the first half of 2017,” said Chuck Magro, Agrium’s president and CEO. “We look forward to the completion of our merger with PotashCorp which is anticipated near the end of the third quarter of this year and continue to make significant progress on integration preparations.”

Agrium has tightened its EPS guidance for the year to $4.75-$5.25 from $4.75-$5.75 citing a couple of factors. It said it lowered the upper end due to an expected weak nitrogen pricing environment and the challenging weather conditions in the spring which impacted North American Retail crop nutrient margins and sales volumes. However, it expects second-half earnings to have a similar quarterly earnings profile to 2016.

Six-month earnings were $548 million ($3.95 per share) on sales of $9 billion, down from the year-ago $568 million ($4.09 per share) and $9.1 billion, respectively.

IPL Selects New CEO

Incitec Pivot Ltd. has named Ms. Jeanne Johns as managing director and CEO, effective Nov. 15, 2017, to succeed James Fazzino. In February, IPL had announced that Fazzino would be stepping down within 12 months and that a global search would be launched for his successor.

IPL said Johns is an American-born chemical engineer with over 25 years of experience in international industrial and commodity businesses, including petrochemicals and oil and gas. During a long career with BP, she held numerous leadership roles in the U.S., Europe and China managing multinational businesses and international strategic business development.