PPG 4Q profit rises 5 pct. on coatings demand

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- PPG Industries said Monday its fourth-quarter net income rose 5 percent, helped by higher contributions from its coatings businesses.

The Pittsburgh-based company earned $227 million, or $1.46 per share, up from $216 million, or $1.39 per share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding acquisition-related costs and charges stemming from the sale of its commodity chemicals business, the company posted an adjusted profit of $1.53 per share for the recent quarter.

Revenue rose 4 percent to $3.65 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected $1.53 per share on $3.59 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Revenue at the company's performance coatings business rose 1 percent to $1.2 billion on higher aerospace demand, while sales of industrial coatings grew 9 percent to $1.1 billion on higher sales volumes in North America and some emerging markets.

Commodity chemicals sales rose 2 percent to $405 million. The company expects to complete the sale of the business at the end of January.

For the full year 2012, PPG earned $941 million, or $6.06 per share, down from $1.1 billion, or $6.87 per share, in 2011. Revenue rose to $15.2 billion from $14.89 billion.

PPG also said Monday that it's in talks with Essilor International relating to the future of PPG's and Essilor's joint venture, Transitions Optical, which provides photochromic lenses to optical manufacturers.

PPG hold a 51 percent stake in Transitions, while Essilor holds the remaining 49 percent interest and is also the joint venture's largest customer. PPG said the talks could result in a modification of the current joint venture agreement, or one company selling all or part of its stake in the joint venture to the other.

PPG shares fell 41 cents to $141.69 in morning trading.