Specialty chemicals business Elementis (ELM) is set to grow operating profit across the board despite unplanned production outages in its chromium division and raw material cost inflation.

Earlier this year, we were impressed by Elementis’ $360m acquisition of antiperspirant ingredients manufacturer SummitReheis. In the last 12 months Elementis has rallied 20%, partially driven by the acquisition as it helped to boost sales by 26% to $334.1m in the first half of 2017.

The integration of SummitReheis is on track and the company is undertaking pricing actions to tackle higher raw material costs that have curbed profit growth in the speciality products division.

Elementis also plans to sell the underperforming surfactants business early next year.

N+1 Singer analyst James Tetley says Elementis is on track to meet full year expectations and is ‘well positioned to deliver another year of good growth in 2018’ through organic growth and M&A.

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