By Katherine Hamilton
Ashland swung to a loss in the first quarter of 2025 after selling two of its business divisions and moving up maintenance expenses to prepare for trade uncertainty.
The additives and specialty ingredients company swung to a loss of $165 million, or $3.50 a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, from a profit of $26 million, or 51 cents a share, a year earlier.
Sales fell 14% to $405 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast sales of $429 million.
Ashland, which is based in Wilmington, Del., is nearing the final stages of a portfolio optimization, which reduced overall sales by about $50 million in the first quarter, it said.
In December, it said it would sell its fragrance-fixture arm to the French company Mane, with the transaction set to close in the first quarter of 2025. It also plans to implement a $30 million cost reduction plan to offset gross profit loss from the September 2024 sale of its nutraceutical business.
Ashland also moved annual maintenance turnarounds to the first quarter in an effort to build greater resilience to trade policy uncertainty, Chief Executive Guillermo Novo said. This shifted planned expenses forward, but enhances flexibility.
Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 28, 2025 17:32 ET (22:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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