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Wallets Survive Profits Pressure MOST CHEMECAL EXECUTIVES made more money last year, despite weak earnings and mixed stock performance. Nearly all of the executives at 70 companies surveyed by CW [...]

GLOBAL CHEMICAL share prices shrank 4%, including a 5% drop in Europe and the Americas and a 1% decline in Asia, from the beginning of the year through the end [...]

DOW CHEMICAL ISSUED $500 MILLION OF 10-YEAR BONDS EARLIER THIS month after switching underwriters. Dow had hired Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown to lead the offering. Dow later [...]

BASIC CHEMICAL MAKERS LYONDELL Chemical and Union Carbide sank into the red in the fourth quarter, while profits plummeted at Arch Chemicals, Rohm and Haas, and W.R. Grace. A few [...]

AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS AND Praxair were among the few specialties and industrial gases firms to report increased earnings for the latest quarter. Avery Dennison and Cytec Industries had flat [...]

CHEMICALS STOCKS BEGAN A SHARP rebound at the end of last month, despite at least a dozen fourth-quarter warnings and fears of a softening U.S. economy (CW, Jan. 3, p. [...]

THE VOLUME OF M&A HAS SWELLED TO A RECORD OF at least 623 transactions announced in 2000. Bankers expect M&A to maintain its frenzied pace in 2001, as companies continue [...]

SLOWING END-USE MARKETS, ESPECIALLY the automotive, construction, and appliance industries, have led to a rash of earnings warnings in the chemical industry (table). Companies say most end-use markets are lowering [...]

W.R. GRACE'S CREDIT RATING SLIPPED TO junk last week amid worries about asbestos liabilities, which has prompted Armstrong World Industries and Owens-Corning to file for bankruptcy recently (CW Dec. 13, [...]

CHEMICAL COMPANIES SAY THAT unusually high oil and natural gas prices are killing their bottom lines. The companies told institutional investors, bankers, analysts, and consultants at the CW-Salomon Smith Barney [...]

GLOBAL CHEMICALS share prices were generally flat in October after steep declines earlier in the year. Global chemicals stocks fell 19% from January, rumbling 30% in the Americas, 14% in [...]

OIL COMPANIES' CHEMICAL PROFITS slumped in the third quarter, along with those of other basic chemicals producers. Earnings dipped at ExxonMobil, Phillips Petroleum, and Ashland, despite a rise in overall [...]

DuPont met earnings estimates for the third quarter, matching expectations that had been lowered after it announced in September that it would not achieve full-year earnings forecasts (CW, Sept. 13, [...]

American Depositary Shares (ADS) of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) inched up 10 cts/share on October 18, its first day of trading, less than 1% from the initial offer [...]

UNION CARBIDE'S WARNING THAT IT would not meet profit estimates for the third quarter, mostly because of rising feedstock costs, cast a shadow over basic and diversified chemicals makers. A [...]

ANALYSTS SAY CHEMICAL INDUSTRY'S stock prices have hit bottom. Investors responded by buying chemical stocks in droves last week, lifting share prices for many companies off their 52-week lows. Chemical [...]

GEORGIA GULF AND BORDEN CHEMICALS and Plastics have warned that their third-quarter earnings will not meet forecasts because of weak vinyl resins markets and high energy and raw materials costs. [...]

A GROWING BATCH OF CHEMICAL companies have lowered their third-quarter or full-year 2000 earnings estimates, as they battle with rising feedstock and energy costs, a weak euro, and reduced demand [...]

STOCK PRICES OF CHEMICAL FIRMS, including Dow Chemical and Union Carbide, have fallen in the wake of DuPont's earnings warning, as investors retreat further from the already out-of-favor chemicals sector, [...]

ORICA (MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA) WILL acquire LaRoche Industries' ammonium nitrate (AN) business for $44 million, the result of a successful bid in a court-managed auction for the business. The sale is [...]

LYONDELL CHEMICAL SAYS IT HAS ended discussions with Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) about PDVSA buying out Lyondell's 58.75% stake in their refining joint venture, Lyondell Citgo Refining (LCR). Lyondell says [...]

Dow Chemical has become the first industrial company to sell bonds over the Internet, selling $300 million of its five-year 'e-bonds.' The bonds were sold via a Dutch auction process. [...]

CHEMICALS AND RELATED INDUSTRY M&A TRANSACTIONS ANNOUNCED in the second quarter totaled $27 billion, a decline of 86% compared to the first quarter (CW, May 17, p. 32). The total [...]

BEAR STEARNS IS ON A CAMPAIGN TO BEEF UP ITS CHEMICALS PRACTICE The firm has hired Telly Zachariades and Gary Denning from Chase Securities (New York) 'to build and manage [...]

DOW CHEMICAL AND DUPONT BEAT analysts' forecasts, reporting higher than expected double-digit earnings growth in the second quarter, but neither company was rewarded by investors. Both companies are trading close [...]

ANALYSTS SAY THE SECOND HALF OF 2000 will be tough for chemicals producers, particularly specialty makers, which have been unable to increase product prices fast enough to compensate for higher [...]

EARLY REPORTING CHEMICALS COMPANIES posted generally higher second-quarter earnings compared to last year's second quarter, although many other companies have warned that results will be lower than forecasts. Most companies [...]

ROHM AND HAAS (R&H) SAYS ITS NET earnings, excluding special items, will be about 42 cts/share--24% lower than the average of analysts' estimates provided by First Call (Boston). The company [...]

ACC'S Program Broadens its Reach ACC'S RESPONSIBLE CARE partners program is broadening its reach as more companies and associations become interested in modifying the initiative to suit their needs. Partners [...]

BASF says it plans to sell its first Eurobond through the Internet. Deutsche Bank (London) and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (London) will lead the offer. Analysts expect BASF to issue [...]

ANALYSTS EXPECT SOLUTIA TO USE projected proceeds of $250 million from two recent divestitures to buy back as much as 20% of its stock. Solutia's share price has been halved [...]

BASIC AND DIVERSIFIED CHEMICAL MAKERS including Eastman Chemical, Union Carbide, Lyondell Chemical, Vulcan Materials, Millennium Chemicals, and Dow Chemical expect to report strong earnings in the second quarter. Vulcan says [...]

Omnova Solutions reported second-quarter operating earnings down nearly 50%, to $12.6 million, on sales up 1%, to $198.5 million. Omnova says it spent $14 million more on feedstocks in second-quarter [...]

SOLUITA HAS WARNED THAT ITS SECOND- quarter profits will be lower than analysts' expectations, despite higher sales volumes and revenues. The company says operating profits are being squeezed by high [...]

FIRST-QUARTER DEBT financings in the chemical industry shrank compared to last year's quarterly average, although equity and equity-linked offerings kept pace with last year, at about $6 billion. Banks underwrote [...]

VANTICO (BASEL), THE COMPANY CREATED by the SF1.6-billion ($950 million) purchase of Ciba's Performance Polymers epoxies business by Morgan Grenfell Private Equity (London), was launched on June 5 (CW, Dec. [...]

ANALYSTS EXPECT SECOND-QUARTER A earnings to be relatively strong at many chemical companies, despite high raw material costs. Many companies grew their first-quarter earnings through product price increases and higher [...]

PHARMACIA HAS FILED A REGISTRATION statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO) of 19.9% of its Monsanto agricultural and biotechnology businesses. Pharmacia, the [...]

MORE THAN 200 CHEMICALS AND RELATED INDUSTRY M&A DEALS, worth more than $200 billion, were announced in first-quarter 2000, according to CW research (table, p. 32). About $35 billion of [...]

MOST LATE-REPORTING BASIC chemicals makers had a robust first-quarter, despite the pinch of higher raw materials costs. Union Carbide, Eastman Chemical, Georgia Gulf, Geon, and Olin increased profits. Earnings were [...]

BFGOODRICH SAYS A BUYER HAS NOT COME FORWARD YET FOR ITS $1.2-billion specialty chemicals business, but bankers speculate that Great Lakes Chemical and Eastman Chemical are interested in pieces of [...]

ROHM AND HAAS (R&H) AND 3M SHARES are the latest casualties among old economy stocks. Both repotted solid first-quarter results, although their stocks tumbled amid concerns about feedstock costs. R&H's [...]

OIL COMPANIES' EARNINGS SOARED IN the first quarter as oil prices surpassed $30/barrel. Their chemical unit earnings also profited as rising product prices and sales volumes compensated for higher raw [...]

MOST OF THE SPECIALTY CHEMICALS companies reporting first-quarter earnings at the end of April say they were able to grow profits because of stronger results in Asia and Latin America, [...]

FIRST-QUARTER EARNINGS ROSE STRONGLY at most basic and diversified chemical makers, including Dow Chemical, Union Carbide, Millennium Chemicals, Nova Chemicals, Wellman, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, and Terra Nitrogen. Profits were [...]

DUPONT KEPT ITS DOUBLE-DIGIT EARNINGS PROMISE, BUT investors sent the stock down more than 10% last week. Analysts say the company was only able to beat the average of their [...]

CHEMICAL STOCKS SHOULD HAVE BENEFITED FROM THE recent Nasdaq crash, as investors rushed out of new economy stocks. 'One would think with a scare like that, investors would buy a [...]

Air Products and Chemicals says plans are proceeding for a possible sale of its $200-million/year polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) business. It recently hired Goldman Sachs (New York) to advise on options [...]

EARLY-REPORTING SPECIALTY CHEMICAL companies, squeezed by feedstocks costs, posted mixed first-quarter results. Overall, top lines benefited from higher sales volumes for many products, some product price increases, and healthier markets [...]

CHEMICAL COMPANIES ARE FACING A MORE DIFFICULT DEBT market, which will make it harder to issue bonds and refinance borrowings, analysts say. The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates [...]