(Reuters) -Italian electrode maker Industrie De Nora on Wednesday lowered its 2023 revenue guidance and launched a 45 million euro ($48 million) share buyback programme.
It now expects total consolidated revenue of 850-870 million euros, having in July guided to the bottom end of a range of 900-950 million.
Its net profit for the first nine months of the year more than tripled to 198.2 million euros on revenue up 2% at 629.8 million.
Its net profit was boosted by a non-recurring income of 130 million euros including proceeds from the stock market listing in Frankfurt of Thyssenkrupp Nucera, its joint venture with Germany’s Thyssenkrupp.
The one-off income included “the reduction of De Nora’s percentage interest in Thyssenkrupp Nucera (dilutive effect) and the capital gain from the greenshoe option exercise,” the group said.
At 1328 GMT, De Nora shares were down 2.2%, paring losses after falling as much as 5%.
While speaking about green hydrogen, CEO Paolo Dellachà said in a statement: “In the short term, the market is accelerating more slowly than anticipated due to moderate development of the various regulations, the evolution of renewable energies and to global macroeconomic factors”
Industrie De Nora now sees a less bright situation for 2025 as “with reference to the Energy Transition segment, despite a growth scenario, a downsizing of the 2025 objectives is expected(…) considering a slower development speed for the green hydrogen market”, it said.
The company said on November 9 it will start a share buyback programme of up to 45 million euros, which may be increased by an additional 44 million euros.
($1 = 0.9369 euros)
(Reporting by Alberto Chiumento; editing by David Goodman)