DuPont Slips To Loss On Weak Sales; Says Merger On Track - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Chemical giant EI DuPont De Nemours & Co. (DD) or DuPont, which is in deal for an all-stock merger of equals with Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), reported Tuesday its fourth-quarter net loss attributable to the company of $253 million, compared to last year's profit of $683 million. Loss per share was $0.29, versus $0.74 in prior year.

Operating earnings were $239 million, compared to $519 million last year. Fourth-quarter operating earnings per share were $0.27, in line with expectations, versus $0.57 in prior year.

Sales were $5.3 billion, down 9 percent from $5.85 billion in the prior year, due to negative impacts from currency and volume.

Excluding currency, sales declined 1 percent. Currency negatively impacted sales by an additional 8 percent.

The company said actions are underway for 2016 global cost savings and restructuring plan, expected to reduce operating costs by about $1 billion on run-rate basis by end of 2016, which represents about $730 million in cost reductions in 2016 versus prior year.

Further, DuPont's board of directors approved a first-quarter dividend of 38 cents per share, payable on March 14, to stockholders of record at the close of business on Feb. 12.

Ed Breen, Chair and CEO of DuPont,said, "Our merger process is on track. We are meeting key milestones and have begun our planning to create three strong, highly focused, independent businesses in agriculture, material science and specialty products."