OREANDA-NEWS. German diversified chemicals maker Evonik said it was optimistic that sales and earnings will rise this year after a fourth-quarter turnaround helped it meet its 2014 targets.

Evonik's adjusted core profit or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), jumped 18 percent in the quarter to 442 million euros (\$495 million), while revenue rose 4 percent to 3.23 billion euros.

Both were slightly ahead of average estimates in a Reuter’s poll.

"We did our homework and are now poised for a new phase of profitable growth," Chief Executive Klaus Engel said in a statement on Tuesday.

Evonik said sales and adjusted EBITDA should be slightly higher this year, with potential for greater improvement if the average euro-dollar exchange rate remained as it was at the start of the year.

Evonik said it would pay a dividend of 1 euro per share for 2014, unchanged from a year earlier.

The company invested 1.1 billion euros in new production facilities in 2014 as it positioned itself to latch onto trends in health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalisation.

Its biggest single investment has been in a complex for animal feed in Singapore, which went into operation last year.

Envoi added that the earnings impact of lower raw materials prices should balance out across the portfolio.