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 Shares of the company, which is merging with DuPont, were up 3.3
percent at $44 in premarket trading.
Both Dow and DuPont have been aggressively cutting costs, ahead of
their combination, which will later split into three businesses,
focused on material sciences, specialty products and agriculture.
The cost-cuts helped Dow's operating margin increase by 406 basis
points to 20.9 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31. Cost of
sales fell 24 percent to $8.81 billion.
Operating EBITDA at Dow's plastics business, its biggest by sales,
was $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year ago, due to
historically low crude costs.
The chemical maker is facing renewed pressure from activist investor
Daniel Loeb of hedge fund Third Point, which earlier pressured Dow
to break itself up.
Loeb, who is now calling for the removal of Dow Chief Executive
Andrew Liveris, sent a private letter to the company's board in
December, raising questions about the timing of the DuPont deal,
according to the Wall Street Journal.
Dow is also set to assume full control of Dow Corning, its
joint-venture with Gorilla glass maker Corning Inc.
Net income jumped nearly fivefold to $3.53 billion in the fourth
quarter from a year earlier.
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Excluding a gain of $1.96 per share from the spinoff of Dow Chlorine
Products, the company earned 93 cents per share, handily beating the
average analyst estimate of 70 cents, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.
Net sales fell 20 percent to $11.46 billion, beating analysts'
estimate of $11.2 billion.
Up to Monday's close of $42.58, Dow's shares had slipped about 6
percent over the past 12 months.
(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
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