Yara launches share buy-backs after third-quarter earnings in line

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's Yara , one of the world's largest fertilizer-makers, said it was starting a share buy-back program after reporting quarterly earnings that were broadly in line with forecasts on Friday.

Yara's second-quarter profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 49% to $630 million before non-recurring items and IFRS 16 effects, while analysts in a Refinitiv poll on average had expected $623 million.

Yara said it expects spot prices for natural gas, its main cost, to be $160 million lower than a year earlier in the fourth and, and $50 million lower in the first quarter of next year compared to a year earlier.

(Reporting by Victoria Klesty, editing by Terje Solsvik)