Syngenta Q3 Sales Drop Amid Currency Impact

(RTTNews) - Swiss crop chemicals major Syngenta AG (SYT) Thursday said its third-quarter group sales dropped 12 percent to $2.616 billion from $2.975 billion in the previous year. On a currency-neutral basis, sales were little changed.

Sales dropped 19 percent in Europe, Africa, Middle East, 23 percent in North America, and 3 percent in Latin America. The sales drop was 17 percent in Asia Pacific.

Mike Mack, CEO, said: "In the third quarter Latin America has been further affected by currency volatility in Brazil and by tight credit conditions. Although this means that performance in the region is unlikely to meet our original expectations for 2015, we are maintaining our market-leading position as well as our tight focus on risk management."

For the full year, at constant exchange rates, Syngenta expects sales to be around last year's level and EBITDA to show a double digit increase.

Reported sales continue to be affected by the strength of the dollar, and reported EBITDA is likely to show a mid-single digit decline.