BASF says 2020 profit tripled to 4.56 billion

BASF said its 2010 net profit leapt more than three-fold to 4.56 billion euros ($6.27 billion), though the year-earlier figure of 1.41 billion was in large part a reflection of the global economic slowdown.

Despite problems in North Africa, chairman Juergen Hambrecht was quoted by a statement as saying it is now "optimistic for the first quarter (of 2011) and the year as a whole."

He nonetheless acknowledged that "we are concerned about Libya," where BASF\'s Wintershall oil unit has halted production, leaving only a small group of core workers at its sites.

Meanwhile, the German group "achieved record sales and earnings in 2010," Hambrecht said, with the former climbing by 26 percent to 63.9 billion euros.

Earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) and special items leapt by 68 percent to 8.1 billion euros, the statement added, as BASF continued its integration of the specialty chemicals group Ciba.

It also finalised the purchase of Cognis, another small chemicals firm focused on health and nutrition products.

The fourth quarter of last year was especially strong for BASF, with net profit soaring to 1.1 billion euros from 455 million in the same period of 2009, outstripping an average analyst forceast of 891 million euros compiled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Rivals like Dow Chemical, DuPont and Air Liquide have also posted robust results and issued upbeat forecasts based on the assumption that global economic conditions do not deteriorate this year.

Like others, the German group is focused on Asia, and aims "to significantly exceed the record levels for sales in income from operations acheived in 2010," the statement said.

BASF plans to expand a site in Nanjing, China, and and build a new specialty chemicals plant in Malaysia.

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