The decrease in sales and earnings compared with the prior third quarter is mainly a result of the divestiture of the natural gas trading activities on 30 September 2015. Earnings in the Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions and Agricultural Solutions segments are considerably higher than in the prior year quarter.
BASF confirms its outlook for the full year 2016: Sales will decline considerably due to the divestiture of the gas trading business; the company continues to expect EBIT before special items to be slightly below the level of 2015. For sales, 'considerable' represents a change of 6% and higher; for earnings, 'slight' means a change of up to 10%.
BASF will give a comprehensive overview of the third quarter of 2016, including the complete earnings figures, in its fall telephone conference on 27 October 2016.
Current analysts’ estimates for BASF can be found at: basf.com/analysts-estimates.
