BASF reports increased sales but lower earnings for 2022

Ludwigshafen, Germany – BASF has released preliminary figures for the full year 2022. Expected sales of €87,327 million and expected income from operations (EBIT) before special items of €6,878 million are in line with the ranges forecast by BASF and at the level of average analyst estimates for 2022.

The BASF Group’s EBIT amounted to an expected €6,548 million in 2022, below the figure for the prior year (2021: €7,677 million) and below analyst consensus for 2022 (Vara: €6,836 million). This includes non-cash-effective impairments on a plant in the Chemicals segment.

Net income of BASF Group is expected to amount to –€1,376 million in 2022. This is considerably below the prior-year figure (2021: €5,523 million) and the average analyst estimates for 2022 (Vara: €4,768 million). Net income contains non-cash-effective impairments on the shareholding in Wintershall Dea AG in the amount of about €7.3 billion, of which €5.4 billion in Q4 2022. These impairments result in particular from the deconsolidation of the Russian exploration and production activities of Wintershall Dea due to the extensive loss of actual influence and economic expropriation. Wintershall Dea intends to fully exit Russia in an orderly manner complying with all applicable legal obligations. Accordingly, the Russian participations of Wintershall Dea have been re-evaluated and write-downs on the European gas transportation business have been made, including a complete write-down on the participation in Nord Stream AG.

Sales rose by 11 percent in 2022 to an expected €87,327 million (2021: €78,598 million) and were thus in line with the €86 billion to €89 billion range forecast by BASF. The average analyst estimates for sales 2022 of the BASF Group were €87,950 million according to Vara. The increase in sales was mainly driven by higher prices and positive currency effects. Volumes reduced sales.

EBIT before special items amounted to an expected €6,878 million, a decrease of €890 million compared with the prior year (2021: €7,768 million) and in line with the €6.8 billion to €7.2 billion range forecast by BASF. On average analysts had expected EBIT before special items of €6,949 million in 2022 according to Vara.

The average analyst estimates for EBIT before special items of the segments were exceeded in 2022 by Agricultural Solutions and Surface Technologies. EBIT before special items of Materials and Industrial Solutions almost matched average analyst estimates. EBIT before special items fell short of average analyst estimates in the Nutrition & Care and Chemicals segments. In Other, EBIT before special items was better than expected by analysts on average.