Cognis posts 33 mln eur Q1 loss as demand dips
(Corrects spelling of "energy" in seventh paragraph)
FRANKFURT, May 27 (Reuters) - German specialty chemicals company Cognis [COGN.UL] posted a first-quarter net loss of 33 million euros ($46.10 million) as sales slumped, it said on Wednesday, adding it was holding out for a recovery in demand.
"The trading environment remains highly uncertain and volatile," Chief Executive Antonio Trius said in a statement, without providing a more specific outlook.
The private-equity controlled maker of ingredients for consumer goods also said it was beginning to see "a few positive signs" and that rates of sales volume decline were slowing.
The quarterly loss compared to a net profit of 10 million euros in the year-earlier period.
First-quarter sales declined 13.8 percent to 659 million euros, in part because customers ran down their inventories of Cognis' products.
Still, the company reduced its net debt 7.6 percent to 2.16 billion euros as it bought back debt securities on the open market.
Ingredients for food and personal care products and chemicals used by the renewable energy sector -- such as lubricants for wind turbines -- were seeing robust demand even amid the economic crisis, Cognis added.
A slump in demand also weighed on first-quarter results of larger peers such as Lanxess (LXSG.DE) and BASF (BASF.DE). The VCI association of German chemical makers this month forecast a drop in industry output volume of 10 percent, which would be the worst annual decline since 1975.
Cognis hived off its plant oil and textile chemicals businesses last year to ease its debt burden and to focus on supplying ingredients for cosmetics and detergents.
Permira [PERM.UL], together with co-owners Goldman Sachs Capital Partners (GS.N) and SV Life Sciences, abandoned plans to sell Cognis in 2006.
The head of Permira's German operations said in a newspaper interview earlier this year that the buyout firm will hold off on a sale of Cognis until the economic crisis passes. (Reporting by Ludwig Burger)
