DowDuPont set to beat quarterly estimates as new company

By Nivedita Bhattacharjee

(Reuters) - DowDuPont, formed by the merger of chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont, is likely to beat analysts' profit estimates by a big margin when it reports its first quarterly results as a combined company next week.

The company's preliminary earnings numbers on Thursday offered investors an early look into the performance of the combination, which brought together an array of businesses that make chemicals for industries ranging from automobiles to cosmetics.

DowDuPont said it expects to have earned 55 cents per share on an adjusted pro-forma basis in the third quarter, up 10 percent from last year, its preliminary earnings report showed. Analysts are currently expecting 40 cents per share on average.

The quarter benefited from higher prices for its products and strong demand for chemicals used by the consumer sector.

Overall sales rose 8 percent on a proforma basis to $18.3 billion.

The companies completed their $130 billion merger in September. It then made changes to operations in the three units it plans to create, under pressure from investors to run the business more efficiently.

Shares of the company were up 1.6 percent at $72.20 before markets opened on Thursday.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee; Editing by Supriya Kurane and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)