International. Evonik increased adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2018 to €742 million (previous year: €640 million). All three chemical segments contributed to that considerable increase with their excellent advancements in the operational business. All managed to increase adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA margin compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Sales increased to €3.9 billion in the second quarter (previous year: €3.6 billion), mainly due to the increase in sales volumes and sales prices. Adjusted net income stood at €354 million, corresponding to an adjusted earnings per share of €0.76 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 19.2%, remaining 1.5 percentage point above that registered in the same period of the previous year.
In the first half of the year, Evonik generated sales of €7.5 billion and adjusted EBITDA of €1.4 billion. Compared to the first half of 2017, sales grew by 4% and adjusted EBITDA rose by 15%. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased from 17% to 18.8%.
Evonik is very well placed in terms of the evolution of free cash flow: Unlike the previous year (H1 2017: - 135 million euros), in the first half of 2018 free cash flow was positive.
Based on its optimal performance in the first half of the year, Evonik raised the estimate for fiscal year 2018 and now expects adjusted EBITDA from 2.60 to €2,656 million. The company had projected an adjusted EBITDA of €2.4 million to €2.6 billion.
