Israel's ICL Q4 profit jumps alongside surge in potash prices

Icl

09/02/2022 08:00

JERUSALEM, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Israel's ICL (ICL)  ICL.TA 
 ICL.N  reported on Wednesday a jump in fourth-quarter revenue
and profit, boosted by its specialty businesses and a more than
doubling of potash prices.
    The fertiliser and speciality chemicals company posted
quarterly adjusted net profit of $339 million, up from $68
million a year earlier. Boosted by an 84% rise in potash sales,
revenue climbed to $2 billion from $1.3 billion.
    It noted that the average potash price per tonne of $487 was
114% higher than the average of $228 last year, and that rising
prices would have an impact in the first half of 2022.
    "We continued to benefit from our strategic focus on growing
our long-term specialty solutions businesses, as performance in
the quarter was also supported by increased demand and higher
prices in most markets and continued commodity upside momentum,"
said CEO Raviv Zoller.
    For 2022, ICL projected adjusted EBITDA of $1.85 billion to
$2.05 billion, of which EBITDA of $875 million to $925 million
will come from its specialties focused businesses. Adjusted
EBITDA was $1.64 billion in 2021.
    ICL said it would pay a dividend of $169 million, or 13.18
cents a share, next month.

 (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch
Editing by Steven Scheer)
 ((ari.rabinovitch@thomsonreuters.com;  +972-2-632-2202; Reuters
Messaging: ari.rabinovitch@thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))