Pierre Brondeau, presidente, presidente y director ejecutivo de FMC
FMC Agricultural Solutions reportó ingresos y ganancias considerablemente menores en el primer trimestre, ya que se vio afectado por la debilitación de la demanda debido a menores presiones de insectos e inventarios de canales más altos de lo normal en Brasil, tipos de cambio volátiles y la decisión de salir de un canal de distribución en Brasil. responsable de las ventas de productos de terceros impactaron negativamente los resultados.
El segmento registró ingresos de $392.4 millones, una disminución de 16% en comparación con el trimestre del año anterior. Las ganancias del segmento del primer trimestre fueron de $81,8 millones, una disminución de 32% respecto al trimestre del año anterior.
FMC dijo que se espera que los mercados globales de protección de cultivos caigan en un porcentaje medio de un dígito en 2015. El entorno macroeconómico sigue siendo incierto, principalmente a la luz de las expectativas actuales de movimientos de divisas, tasas de interés, precios de productos agrícolas y precios del petróleo, dijo. FMC espera que las contribuciones a las ganancias de la adquisición de Cheminova, incluidas las ganancias iniciales de sinergia, la propagación continua de la resistencia a las malezas en América del Norte y América Latina, y las ganancias de participación de mercado, aumenten las ganancias del segmento de todo el año de un dígito alto a bajo. porcentaje de dos dígitos en 2015.
Pierre Brondeau, president, CEO and chairman, stated: “The first three months of 2015 were characterized by extremely volatile foreign exchange movements, a high degree of uncertainty in global agricultural markets and crop specific headwinds in the Brazil crop protection markets. In the quarter, currency movements reduced our revenues by approximately 4% and reduced our consolidated adjusted earnings per share by 11 cents.
“On February 3, 2015, we signed an agreement to sell Alkali Chemicals for $1.64 billion, resulting in discontinued operations treatment of Alkali Chemicals for the first quarter. The sale was completed on April 1, 2015. We also closed the Cheminova acquisition on April 21, 2015; however, this timing meant that Cheminova’s strong first quarter performance was not included in our first quarter earnings.
“The closing of these two transactions completes the key steps to transform our portfolio into one focused on agriculture, health and nutrition. Looking forward into 2016 and beyond, we expect to see stronger average annual rates of growth in revenues, adjusted operating earnings and adjusted earnings per share than we delivered between 2009 and 2014, with stronger cash generation. Underlying market growth, expanded market access, new technology introductions, operational excellence and near-term synergies from the Cheminova acquisition, plus stronger free cash flow and lower capital intensity, all will contribute to this financial performance between 2016 and 2020. We are excited about the prospects for the transformed FMC portfolio in the coming years.
FMC closed its acquisition of Cheminova on Apr. 21, 2015, and has commenced the process of integrating Cheminova’s operations into FMC. This process is expected to result in synergies of up to $120 million in the first three years, the majority of which will be achieved from various cost-related actions. By eliminating duplicated costs, integrating procurement and supply chain activities, and aggressively targeting cross-selling opportunities, the bulk of these synergies will be in place by mid-2016, the company said.