The announcement comes a few days after the company declared its full-year earnings for 2017 would likely fall below analyst expectations, prompting shares to fall by 11%.
Loss per share was €0.17 compared to profit of €0.20. Operating EBITDA increased by 3% to €105 million, from €102 million in 2Q17. Adjusted for the changes in the fair value of derivatives, loss per share was €0.05 compared to profit of €0.10.
2Q18 revenue increased by more than 9% to €812 million from €742 million in 2Q17. The group attributed the growth to higher sales volumes from the ramp up of the new Bethune potash plant in Canada, and higher prices for potassium chloride and fertilizer specialties.
Adjusted free cash flow improved to negative at €49 million in 2Q18 compared to a negative adjusted free cash flow of €81 million in 2Q17, due to significantly lower capital expenditures.
For 2018, the group said its revenue should reach a level of between €3.9 billion and €4.1 billion. EBITDA is expected to continue to significantly increase compared to 2017 within a range of €660 to €740 million. Nevertheless K+S expects a significant rise in EBITDA versus 2017 (€ 269 million) for the Potash and Magnesium Products business unit mainly due to higher sales volumes from Bethune in Canada and, with this, the related earnings improvement.