New York, Oct 31 - International Flavors and Fragrances Inc said on Wednesday its third-quarter earnings rose, excluding a charge related to its pension, and revenue increased helped by a weak U.S. dollar and growth in its flavors business.
Excluding the charge, third-quarter earnings rose to 71 cents a share from 63 cents. The results were in-line with Wall Street's expectations of 71 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
"Our strong financial performance in the third quarter is a result of significant growth in our flavors business," said Chief Executive Robert Amen, in a statement.
The flavors unit, which makes flavors for products ranging from soft drinks to confectionery products, reported an 8 percent increase in profits, on a 12 percent increase in sales.
Including the pension charge, IFF's net income declined to $58.8 million, or 67 cents a share, from $63.6 million, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier, the New York-based company said.
The company's net income included a pension curtailment loss of $5.9 million or 4 cents a share resulting from changes to IFF's U.S. defined benefit pension plan.
Quarterly sales rose 8 percent to $583.3 million, ahead of Wall Street's expectations of $566.1 million.
Profits from the company's fragrance business was flat versus a year-ago, mainly due to lower fragrance ingredient selling prices, higher raw material costs and lower functional fragrance volumes.
IFF's fine fragrance business makes perfumes for designer and celebrity brand labels, including Ralph Lauren's Polo Blue, Calvin Klein's Eternity and Estee Lauder's Intuition. Its functional fragrances are used in detergents and air fresheners.