By Dimitri Rhodes
(Reuters) -Dulux paint maker Akzo Nobel lowered its core profit outlook for 2025 on Tuesday, citing ongoing market uncertainties and adjusting for exchange rates.
Akzo Nobel’s shares were down 3.3% at 57.44 euros, as of 0924 GMT, after falling as much as 5.3% earlier.
The Dutch paints and coatings maker now forecasts adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 1.48 billion euros ($1.73 billion) in 2025, down from the above-1.55 billion euros previously forecast.
“It’s a 70-million-euro forex translation impact linked to where the currencies are today,” CEO Greg Poux-Guillaume told Reuters in an interview, referring to the lower forecast.
AkzoNobel’s quarterly adjusted EBITDA fell 2% to 393 million euros, missing analysts’ average estimate of 403 million euros, according to a company-provided consensus.
Poux-Guillaume said in a press release that this drop came amid “significant currency headwinds, due to the strength of the euro and generally tepid markets.”
The euro is up 13% so far this year as investors looked for alternatives to U.S. assets and to lower their dollar exposure in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s erratic trade policies.
The group announced in June the sale of its India decorative paints unit to JSW Paints for $1.6 billion, with 500 million euros of the net proceeds going towards reducing debt in a drive to cut costs amid a tough macroeconomic environment.
“Akzo’s portfolio management strategy appears sensible to us and the potential value unlock from the planned sale of its India business in 2025 should also provide share buyback optionality,” analysts at J.P. Morgan said in a note.
The group reiterated its mid-term guidance of an adjusted EBITDA margin of above 16% and a return on investment between 16% and 19%.
($1 = 0.8554 euros)
(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Eileen Soreng)
