Stepan reports Q2 adjusted EPS 41c vs. 53c last year

Reports Q2 revenue $556.4M vs. $580M last year. “Q2 earnings were significantly impacted by higher operational expenses at our Millsdale site, start up costs related to our new Pasadena investment and a criminal social engineering event that targeted one of our Asia subsidiaries, leading to unexpected expense in the quarter. We are actively investigating this fraud event with the assistance of outside counsel, and to date, we have not found any evidence of additional fraudulent activity,” said CEO Scott Behrens. “From a top line perspective, we continue to be pleased with several of our core markets continuing to deliver volume growth…North American and European Agricultural volumes remained soft and below our second quarter expectations. Rigid and Specialty Polyols volumes grew during the quarter. Global margins were in line with expectations despite unfavorable product mix. Despite the significant expenses incurred during the quarter, we delivered adjusted EBITDA growth of 4%.”