Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) reported a double-digit drop in profits and lower revenue for 2013, due to lower potash and phosphate prices. Full-year revenue fell to $6.27 billion from $6.47 billion in 2012, and net profit fell 37% to $818.6 million ($0.64 per share) from $1.3 billion.
Potash revenue fell to $2.03 billion in 2013 from $2.2 billion in 2012 and operating profit fell to $740 million from $996 million. Lower prices were partly offset by higher sales volume, which rose to 4.71 million tons in 2013 from 4.34 million tons in 2012.
Phosphates and fertilizer revenue rose slightly to $1.75 billion in 2013 from $1.73 billion in 2012, due to high production, but operating profit fell to $79 million from $162 million, due to lower prices. Phosphates sales rose to 879,000 tons in 2013 from 739 tons in 2012 and fertilizer sales rose to 1.7 million tons from 1.58 million tons.
Revenue fell in all regions except for Europe, which rose slightly to $2.38 billion in 2013 from $2.33 billion in 2012. Revenue in North America fell to $1.21 billion in 2013 from $1.25 billion in 2012, revenue in South America fell to $748 million from $815 million, and fell in Asia to $1.46 billion from $1.62 billion. Domestic revenue are a small part of the company's business, amounting to $319 million in 2013, 5% of total revenue. While the drop in revenue was due to lower potash prices, North America was an exception: the reduction was due to lower sales of bromine-based flame retardants, inorganic bromine products and chlorine-based biocides for water treatment.
The salary cost of Israel Chemicals CEO Stefan Borgas was $5.54 million (NIS 19.4 million on the basis of an shekel-dollar exchange rate of $3.50/$), comprising a base salary of $1.49 million, a $1.73 million bonus, and $2.31 million in stocks.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 19, 2014
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