Israel Chemicals beats by $0.02, misses on revs (5.11)
- Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.12 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 better than the S&P Capital IQ Consensus of $0.10; revenues rose 0.8% year/year to $1.42 bln vs the $1.43 bln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.
- "We achieved a strong start to 2019, with significant profitability growth recorded in all of our three mineral value chains, as our value focused strategy continued to bear fruits. Our performance is even more meaningful in light of the slow start to the agricultural year in the US, Brazil and Israel which negatively impacted fertilizer sales and put pressure on the commodity phosphate market. During the quarter we continued to make significant progress towards long term value creation, by streamlining operations, empowering our workforce, improving the results of our YPH joint venture, increasing polysulphate production, realigning our R&D and signing an important agreement with the government of Israel to end a decade long dispute on royalties. This agreement will also simplify the royalty calculation in the future and it sets the ground for a new era of open dialogue and cooperation with Israeli authorities. I am confident that the strong start of 2019 puts us on track to achieve another year of solid performance.