CEO and Chairman Ed Breen said: We are making progress on key initiatives, including further improving our cost structure and restructuring our organization to enhance our competitiveness.
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Profit excluding some items will be $2.95 to $3.10 a share this year, DuPont said Tuesday in a statement. (NYSE: DOW), DuPont said that the merger is expected to close in the second half of 2016, after which the new company, named DowDuPont, will break into three separately traded public companies in tax-free spin-offs.
Net loss attributable to the company was $253 million, or 29 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended December 31, from a profit of $683 million, or 74 cents per share, a year earlier. Fourth-quarter operating earnings per share were $0.27, in line with expectations, versus $0.57 in prior year.
In addition to the strong dollar, which makes its products more expensive outside of the U.S., DuPont pointed to hard global economic conditions in agriculture and slower growth in emerging markets for the fourth quarter and said those challenges would continue.
However, including the restructuring and other types of charges that reach $622 million, the business reported a net quarterly loss. Total sales for the year fell 11.5 percent to $25.1 billion, as profit swooned 46 percent to just under $2 billion.
Breen said Tuesday that the headquarters for the agriculture business would be announced in the next few weeks. Dow Chemical’s shares were up 1 percent at $42.62.
The company, which is now in the process of merging with Dow Chemical (Hanover: DCH1.HA – news), forecast full year operating earnings of $2.95 to $3.10 per share, including an expected benefit of $0.64 per share from its global cost savings and restructuring plan.
Executives expect the industrial materials company to be based in Dow’s hometown of Midland, Mich., and the specialty products company, which will produce electronic components and food ingredients, to remain in Wilmington, Del., DuPont’s base for two centuries.
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