COLOMBES, France—Arkema S.A. posted increases in volumes and net income despite a slight drop in sales.
Net income increased 49.8 percent to $444.1 million while sales volumes increased by 3.2 percent on the year. Overall sales, however, dropped by 1.9 percent to $8.01 billion, the firm said in its financial presentation for 2016.
Sales for the fourth quarter, however, increased 5.2 percent to $1.97 billion with net income also increasing significantly, by 75.5 percent to 91.4 million.
High Performance Materials, the largest of Arkema's three business segments, reported a 1.9 increase in sales to $3.64 billion. The increase was largely attributed to the contribution from the segment's Bostik S.A. subsidiary, which makes high performance adhesives. Arkema said Bostik's EBITDA targets are one year ahead of schedule, growing to 13.1 percent compared to 11.2 percent in 2015.
Sales decreased in both of Arkema's other segments. Industrial Specialties experienced a 5.5 percent drop to $2.46 billion while Coating Solutions declined 4.2 percent to $1.88 billion.