Henkel 3rd quarter profit down 58 pct

BERLIN - Household products maker Henkel KGaA said Thursday its third-quarter profit declined 58 percent as the company booked restructuring charges and faced increases in raw material prices.

Henkel, which makes Persil detergent and owns Dial Corp., also cut its full-year profit forecast.

Duesseldorf-based Henkel said net profit for the July-September period fell to 101 million euros ($131 million) from 238 million euros a year earlier, even as sales increased 12 percent to 3.76 billion euros ($4.86 billion) from 3.36 billion euros.

Operating profit was down 47 percent to 191 million euros ($247.1 million) from 359 million euros.

Henkel said it had restructuring charges of 181 million euros ($234.2 million) in the quarter, far higher than the 9 million euros a year earlier. They relate to its efficiency program, which it has said will likely lead to 3,000 job cuts, and to integrating the adhesives and electronic materials units that it acquired from National Starch earlier this year.

Henkel said its adjusted pretax profit margin decreased from 11 percent to 10.4 percent, mostly because of "the heavy impact of raw material price increases" on its laundry and adhesives businesses.

For the full year, the company chopped its forecast for growth in adjusted operating profit to "around 10 percent" from its previous guidance of a figure "at the lower end of the mid-teens percentage range."

Henkel shares closed down 6.8 percent at 21.78 euros ($27.70) in Frankfurt.

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