FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Agriculture and pharmaceuticals company Bayer on Thursday lifted its 2022 earnings guidance on strong demand from farmers for its seeds and crop chemicals and higher sales of consumer health products.
Bayer is now targeting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for special items, of about 13 billion euros ($13.21 billion), based on June 30 foreign exchange rates, where it had previously predicted about 12 billion euros, it said in a statement.
Second-quarter adjusted EBITDA jumped 30% to 3.35 billion euros, above an average analyst estimate of 3.28 billion euros posted on the company’s website.
A surge in global prices of agricultural produce has bolstered farmers’ demand for chemicals and seeds.
The Crop Science division, which generates the bulk of its earnings during the first half of the year, saw adjusted EBITDA surge by more than 70% to 1.75 billion euros, beating a market consensus of 1.56 billion euros.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Rachel More and Maria Sheahan)
