Did Qualcomm Just Put Apple in Check?<\/a><\/p>\nEven so, he said global supply chains are \u201cunder severe stress,\u201d and feedstock availability is a challenge for the industry. BASF activated a cross-divisional crisis response team and, for the coming weeks, does not see \u201csignificant supply risk\u201d for its production.<\/p>\n
In response to questions from Goldman Sachs, Elvermann said BASF\u2019s current supply-risk confidence covers \u201cthe time horizon until end of Q2,\u201d based on rolling physical and pricing risk analysis. He added that most force majeure declarations are currently \u201ccoming from Asia,\u201d not Europe.<\/p>\n
Elvermann also outlined structural advantages he said help BASF remain resilient, including its \u201clocal-for-local production approach,\u201d integrated Verbund sites, flex-feed steam crackers in Antwerp, Zhanjiang, and Port Arthur, and a dedicated trading business for key feedstocks. He said the trading arm, BASF Intertrade, typically handles volumes \u201csignificantly larger\u201d than BASF\u2019s own needs, offering flexibility to redirect material to captive use during supply disruptions.<\/p>\n
Segment earnings: gains in Surface Technologies, pressure in Chemicals <\/p>\n
Elvermann attributed the year-over-year EBITDA before special items decline to offsetting segment movements. \u201cConsiderable earnings growth\u201d in Surface Technologies and slight growth in Materials were outweighed by weaker Chemicals, Agricultural Solutions, Nutrition & Care, and \u201cother,\u201d while Industrial Solutions was stable.<\/p>\n
Surface Technologies\u2019 improvement was driven mainly by Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions (ECMS). Elvermann said results benefited from higher precious metal trading contributions, along with lower fixed costs due to \u201cone-off payments\u201d tied to the resolution of a litigation matter.<\/p>\n
In Materials, earnings rose slightly due to Monomers, helped by lower fixed costs and higher contribution margins.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Chemicals declined \u201cconsiderably,\u201d reflecting lower contribution margins due to global overcapacities, higher turnaround intensity (including Port Arthur), and higher fixed costs from ramping the new South China Verbund site. Elvermann noted, however, that the Zhanjiang site delivered a positive EBITDA before special items in March. He cautioned later on the call that BASF still maintains a \u201cmore cautious forecast\u201d for Zhanjiang and would not assume continuous positivity for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
Nutrition & Care was weaker mainly due to price-related margin declines in Care Chemicals, while Nutrition & Health improved \u201csubstantially\u201d on higher volumes and reduced fixed costs. Agricultural Solutions earnings decreased slightly, largely due to currency effects, although management said slight volume growth in all regions supported performance.<\/p>\n
Cash flow, balance sheet, and cost savings progress <\/p>\n
President of Corporate Finance Christian J\u00fctzi reported EBIT of EUR 1.3 billion, with special charges in EBIT of around EUR 170 million (down from about EUR 430 million a year earlier), largely related to restructuring measures. Net income improved by EUR 119 million to EUR 927 million.<\/p>\n
Free cash flow improved by EUR 423 million to minus EUR 1.4 billion, with J\u00fctzi emphasizing that negative first-quarter free cash flow is typical due to the seasonal nature of Agricultural Solutions. Operating cash flow benefited from dividends received from Wintershall Dea, paid after reimbursement under federal investment guarantees.<\/p>\n
Cash fixed costs declined by around 5% to EUR 3.9 billion, attributed to restructuring and positive currency effects. On the balance sheet, J\u00fctzi said the equity ratio remained \u201csolid\u201d at 43.4% despite the share buyback program, and net debt was unchanged versus the end of March 2025, rising sequentially due to seasonal working capital effects.<\/p>\n
Management reiterated confidence in achieving targeted annual cost savings of around EUR 2.3 billion by year-end, with an annual run rate of EUR 1.9 billion achieved by the end of March. One-time costs are expected to total around EUR 1.9 billion, with EUR 1.6 billion incurred by the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Capital allocation: coatings proceeds, buybacks, and maintained guidance <\/p>\n
Elvermann reiterated BASF\u2019s capital allocation priorities and said the company expects to close the coatings transaction with Carlyle in the second quarter, subject to customary regulatory approvals, receiving pre-tax cash proceeds of around EUR 5.8 billion. Taxes are assumed to be in the \u201cmid triple-digit million euro range.\u201d Asked about P&L and dividends from the retained stake, Elvermann said he would not expect dividends \u201cin the short term\u201d from the joint venture, describing the financial effect as retained earnings and the closing cash inflow.<\/p>\n
BASF also continues monetization of oil and gas assets. Elvermann said first-quarter proceeds from selling a portion of Harbour Energy shares were about EUR 300 million, and BASF\u2019s remaining stake stands at around 30% of shares outstanding. He reiterated BASF considers the holding a financial investment and plans to exit \u201cover time.\u201d The company also received Wintershall Dea dividends of almost EUR 800 million tied to settled insurance claims under federal investment guarantees.<\/p>\n
On shareholder returns, BASF reiterated plans for a dividend of EUR 2.25 per share (subject to shareholder meeting approval) payable May 6. The share buyback program launched in November 2025\u2014up to EUR 1.5 billion\u2014is scheduled to conclude by end of June; BASF has repurchased about EUR 880 million (around 2.2% of shares). Elvermann said BASF has EUR 2.5 billion remaining under the broader plan through 2028 and has not yet decided whether to start another tranche immediately after June.<\/p>\n
Despite uncertainty, BASF maintained its full-year 2026 guidance, including EBITDA before special items of EUR 6.2 billion to EUR 7.0 billion and free cash flow of EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 2.3 billion. Elvermann told analysts the company is \u201coptimistic for the second quarter,\u201d citing pricing power expected to flow through as contract resets allow, while noting that the second half of the year remains hard to assess given uncertainty around the duration of the Middle East crisis and potential demand shifts.<\/p>\n
About Basf (ETR:BAS) <\/p>\n
BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems comprising isocyanates, polyamides, and inorganic basic products, as well as specialties for plastics and plastics processing industries. The Industrial Solutions segment develops and markets ingredients and additives for industrial applications, such as polymer dispersions, resins, additives, electronic materials, and antioxidants for automotive, plastics, paints and coatings, electronics, and energy and resource industries.<\/p>\n
The article “Basf Q1 Earnings Call Highlights<\/a>” was originally published by MarketBeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Points BASF reported Q1 EBITDA before special items of EUR 2.4 billion (down from EUR 2.5 billion)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21106],"tags":[22120,20305,22543,22545,21282,22544,22541,6164,1337,22542,22546,9856],"class_list":["post-19311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basf","tag-agricultural-solutions","tag-basf","tag-dirk-elvermann","tag-elvermann","tag-free-cash-flow","tag-global-supply-chains","tag-nutrition-health","tag-petrochemicals","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-surface-technologies","tag-verbund","tag-volume-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}