DowDuPont sales rise 10 percent, announces $3 billion share buyback

(Reuters) - DowDuPont Inc's third-quarter sales rose 10 percent, led by stronger demand for chemicals used in cosmetics, paints and packaging gear.

The world's largest chemicals producer also said on Thursday it would buy back $3 billion in shares over the next five months.

Sales at DowDuPont's materials science business, which produces chemicals used in cosmetics, packaging material, paints and brake fluids, rose 13 percent to $12.4 billion in the third quarter of 2018. The unit is DowDuPont's top revenue contributor.

Overall net sales rose to $20.1 billion, which the company said compared with net sales of $18.3 billion a year earlier, if DowDuPont had been a single company.

Adjusted earnings rose 35 percent to 74 cents per share.

DowDuPont, formed after chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont merged last year, said last month its agricultural unit recorded a charge of $4.6 billion, as global seed makers face shifts in demand linked to the Sino-U.S. trade war.

The charge was a non-cash expense and as a result not reflected in third-quarter results, Chief Financial Officer Howard Ungerleider said in an interview with Reuters.

"We don't see any material impact from the tariffs on our businesses in the fourth quarter," he said.

The trade dispute between China and the United States has led to increasing uncertainty for the farm sector, especially after Beijing this year imposed a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans, the most valuable American farm export to China.

(Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)