Indorama Ventures (IVL), a leading chemical producer, has reached net profit of US$ 259 million in the second quarter of 2018, and US$ 443 million in the first half year, 109% higher year on year. The company delivered record performance, with improvements in production volumes and margins across all key segments and geographies. IVL reported revenue of US$ 2,618 million in the second quarter and US$ 5,032 in the first half year, 22% higher year on year.

IVL’s strategy to drive sustainable and profitable growth of both high-volume Necessities and stable but high-margin High Value-added HVA business continues. The company further upgraded its portfolio through organic growth, operational excellence initiatives, value accretive acquisitions and strategic integrations. IVL now operates on a global scale of an integrated Polyester Value Chain and HVA platform, with a more resilient product and geographic mix.

Strategic investments

Investments continue to drive value-accretive growth with six acquisitions since March 2018, including PET plants in Brazil and Egypt, which has added net PET capacity of 1.1 million tonnes; Avgol which will enhance IVL’s HVA portfolio and market share in the personal hygiene segment; Kordarna which will propel IVL to a leading tire cord producer in Europe and globally, with a complete range of tire reinforcement products; Medco, which is a leading packaging company in Egypt with strong customer relationships; and Sorepla, a recycling business in France to serve increasing demand for recycled plastics like rPET.

Industry fundamentals continue to be positive, led by strong demand growth for 100% recyclable PET, supply balance and on-going improvements seen in the PET industry. This creates opportunity for well-managed and committed producers to enable supply reliability to customers in tight market conditions.

The structural improvement in the commodity cycle resulted in IVL’s LTM second quarter 2018 EBITDA from the Necessities business of US$ 716 million, surpassing EBITDA contribution from the HVA business of US$ 540 million for the same period thus reflecting margin recovery in the Necessities segment.

Sustainable development

In June, the FTSE Russell reiterated IVL as a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index 2018 and identified the company as the top performer in its peer group of global chemical companies. “This is an encouraging set of results reflecting the strong execution of our strategy, the growth momentum in our businesses, and ongoing structural improvement in the Necessities segment,” said Aloke Lohia, Group CEO of Indorama Ventures. “The outlook for the second half of the year is equally encouraging as we anticipate current market conditions to prevail. We will continue to pursue value accretive opportunities in both our key segments to further strengthen the foundations of sustainable performance.”

“Based on our solid first-half performance and strong 2H2018 expectations, we are raised our guidance for our core EBITDA to increase by 75% on 2017 performance to US$ 1.75 billion in 2019. These are exciting times at IVL, and I am confident in our ability to continue to deliver industry-leading performance.”

www.indoramaventures.com