Celanese Corp key statistics and ratios
In fiscal 2025, Celanese Corp had return on equity of -25.4%, an operating margin of -8.2%, debt equal to 313.8% of equity and a current ratio of 1.55. Each ratio below is calculated from the figures on its income statement, balance sheet and cash flow pages.
Financial ratios
| Fiscal year | 2009Dec 2009 | 2010Dec 2010 | 2011Dec 2011 | 2012Dec 2012 | 2013Dec 2013 | 2014Dec 2014 | 2015Dec 2015 | 2016Dec 2016 | 2017Dec 2017 | 2018Dec 2018 | 2019Dec 2019 | 2020Dec 2020 | 2021Dec 2021 | 2022Dec 2022 | 2023Dec 2023 | 2024Dec 2024 | 2025Dec 2025 | LTMJun 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 19.7% | 19.9% | 21.0% | 18.4% | 21.0% | 23.8% | 23.2% | 26.1% | 24.6% | 27.6% | 25.5% | 22.9% | 31.4% | 24.6% | 23.6% | 22.8% | 20.5% | 20.9% |
| Operating margin | 5.7% | 8.5% | 5.9% | 2.7% | 23.2% | 11.1% | 5.7% | 17.3% | 14.0% | 18.6% | 13.2% | 11.7% | 22.8% | 14.2% | 15.2% | −7.0% | −8.2% | −7.1% |
| Net margin | 9.8% | 6.4% | 6.3% | 5.8% | 16.9% | 9.2% | 5.4% | 16.7% | 13.7% | 16.9% | 13.5% | 35.1% | 22.1% | 19.6% | 17.8% | −15.0% | −12.2% | −12.0% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 8.3% | 4.2% | 4.3% | 5.8% | 7.5% | 10.4% | 11.1% | 12.0% | 8.7% | 17.1% | 17.2% | 17.3% | 15.1% | 13.2% | 12.2% | 5.2% | 8.4% | 7.3% |
| Return on equity | 85.0% | 49.9% | 37.7% | 24.2% | 49.7% | 22.6% | 11.7% | 36.2% | 30.8% | 41.1% | 31.0% | 65.8% | 49.0% | 38.6% | 30.6% | −25.3% | −25.4% | −28.5% |
| Return on assets | 5.9% | 4.5% | 5.1% | 4.2% | 12.2% | 7.0% | 3.5% | 10.6% | 9.4% | 12.8% | 9.1% | 19.5% | 16.5% | 9.9% | 7.4% | −6.2% | −5.2% | −5.4% |
| Asset turnover | 0.60 | 0.71 | 0.81 | 0.73 | 0.72 | 0.76 | 0.65 | 0.64 | 0.69 | 0.76 | 0.67 | 0.55 | 0.75 | 0.51 | 0.41 | 0.42 | 0.43 | 0.45 |
| Current ratio | 1.78 | 1.73 | 1.95 | 2.10 | 2.06 | 2.02 | 1.80 | 2.30 | 1.79 | 1.62 | 1.58 | 1.91 | 1.52 | 1.63 | 1.53 | 1.32 | 1.55 | 1.45 |
| Debt to equity | 597.4% | 347.5% | 225.0% | 179.1% | 113.5% | 97.4% | 126.1% | 117.0% | 126.8% | 118.9% | 156.5% | 106.0% | 95.2% | 261.7% | 194.7% | 246.3% | 313.8% | 290.4% |
| Interest cover (operating income ÷ interest) | 1.4x | 2.5x | 1.8x | 0.9x | 8.8x | 5.2x | 2.7x | 7.8x | 7.0x | 10.7x | 7.3x | 6.1x | 21.4x | 3.4x | 2.3x | n/m | n/m | n/m |
| Effective tax rate | — | 20.8% | 8.8% | −17.1% | 31.6% | 33.4% | 41.2% | 11.8% | 19.8% | 19.3% | 12.6% | 11.0% | 14.7% | −34.4% | — | — | — | — |
| R&D as % of revenue | 1.4% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1.3% | 2.1% | 1.4% | 1.2% | 1.0% | 1.1% | 1.3% | 1.0% | 1.2% | 1.3% | 1.3% | 1.3% | 1.2% |
| SG&A as % of revenue | 9.3% | 8.5% | 11.9% | 12.9% | 4.8% | 11.1% | 8.9% | 7.0% | 8.1% | 7.6% | 7.7% | 8.5% | 7.4% | 8.5% | 9.9% | 10.1% | 9.4% | 9.6% |
| Capital spending as % of revenue | 3.5% | 3.4% | 5.2% | 5.4% | 4.3% | 3.7% | 4.1% | 4.6% | 4.3% | 4.7% | 5.9% | 6.4% | 5.5% | 5.6% | 5.2% | 4.2% | 3.6% | 2.8% |
| Free cash flow ÷ net income | 84.3% | 66.6% | 67.7% | 100.3% | 44.1% | 113.5% | 207.2% | 71.9% | 63.6% | 101.2% | 127.2% | 49.3% | 68.3% | 67.4% | 68.5% | — | — | — |
| Dividends ÷ net income | 4.6% | 7.4% | 8.0% | 11.6% | 7.5% | 23.1% | 57.2% | 22.3% | 28.6% | 23.2% | 35.2% | 14.8% | 16.1% | 15.7% | 15.7% | — | — | — |
| Dividends and buybacks ÷ free cash flow | 5.5% | 30.3% | 22.5% | 23.6% | 50.9% | 55.6% | 94.3% | 108.3% | 138.2% | 88.9% | 119.6% | 96.3% | 101.1% | 24.6% | 22.9% | 57.8% | 1.6% | 1.8% |
| Quarter | 2024 Q3Sept 2024 | 2024 Q4Dec 2024 | 2025 Q1Mar 2025 | 2025 Q2Jun 2025 | 2025 Q3Sept 2025 | 2025 Q4Dec 2025 | 2026 Q1Mar 2026 | 2026 Q2Jun 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 23.4% | 22.3% | 19.8% | 21.1% | 21.5% | 19.2% | 20.0% | 22.5% |
| Operating margin | 9.3% | −60.2% | 6.9% | 9.1% | −52.7% | 4.2% | 9.2% | 10.0% |
| Net margin | 4.3% | −81.6% | −1.0% | 7.8% | −56.1% | 0.9% | 1.9% | 4.5% |
| Free-cash-flow margin | −0.3% | 16.5% | −2.7% | 12.5% | 15.8% | 7.6% | 0.4% | 5.3% |
| Current ratio | 1.37 | 1.32 | 1.94 | 2.05 | 1.63 | 1.55 | 1.38 | 1.45 |
| Debt to equity | 198.5% | 273.5% | 252.4% | 249.9% | 353.2% | 341.3% | 352.9% | 319.8% |
| R&D as % of revenue | 1.2% | 1.3% | 1.3% | 1.2% | 1.3% | 1.5% | 1.2% | 1.1% |
| SG&A as % of revenue | 9.4% | 11.2% | 9.7% | 8.5% | 9.5% | 10.1% | 9.7% | 9.1% |
Financial health
- Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $5.8bn of assets due within a year against $4.0bn of liabilities due within a year.
- Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities Not assessable from the reported split. Not assessable.
- More cash than debt $1.4bn of cash against $13.3bn of debt.
- Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 320% of equity.
- Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 76% to 320% over five years.
- A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $984m of operating cash flow against $13.3bn of debt.
- Operating profit covers interest at least five times over Operating income of −$692m against $723m of interest.
Moat
Moderate moat
How hard Celanese's competitive advantage looks for rivals to wear away, judged from 10 years of its own filings: returns on capital, pricing power, profit durability, cash conversion and discipline.
- Returns on capital 11 / 20
Cash operating profit has been a median 8.8% of total assets over 10 years.
- Pricing power 8 / 20
Gross margin has been a median 24.1%, moving by 2.9 percentage points (standard deviation) across 10 years.
- Durability 4 / 20
Operating margin has been a median 14.4%; its worst year was -7.8%.
- Cash conversion 15 / 20
Free cash flow was positive in 10 of 10 years, at a median 10.6% of revenue.
- Discipline 18 / 20
The diluted share count fell 4.9% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median 0.7% of revenue.
AI disruption exposure: Low. In this industry, the business rests on physical assets, regulated networks or products AI itself depends on.
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