LyondellBasell reports $874 million fourth quarter net income

LyondellBasell has reported a net income of $874 million in the fourth quarter (October-December) of 2010, which works out to an earnings per share of $1.54 on an expanded capital.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) works out to $762 million (excluding reversal of $323 million in inventory charge).

Sales in the fourth quarter were $10.61 billion, an increase of 20 per cent from the prior year period. For the full year 2010, EBITDA (revised) was $4.04 billion excluding a $42 million `lower of cost or market' (LCM) charge.

The company repaid $1.2 billion of debt during the quarter, LyondellBasel said in a release.

For the full-year 2010, the company reported an EBITDA (revised) of $4 billion, excluding non-cash inventory charge - an increase of 80 per cent from 2009.

Led by particularly strong results in US olefins and polyolefins and global propylene oxide, sales rose 33 per cent to $41 billion compared to the prior year. The company ended the year with $6.1 billion liquidity, including $4.2 billion in cash.