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German speciality chemicals company Lanxess has announced strong figures for the past fiscal year, with improvements in key reported numbers. "2012 was the best year in our growth story so far. Our business model proved itself once again,” said Lanxess’ Chairman of the Board of Management, Axel C Heitmann, at the Annual Press Conference in Dusseldorf.
Group sales grew by 4% in fiscal 2012 to €9094M. Business development was driven notably by the focus on emerging markets, solid demand for agrochemicals, pleasing contributions from acquisitions and the price-before-volume strategy.
EBITDA pre exceptionals improved by 7% to €1225M, (€1146M yr-on-yr). The operating result thus came within the target corridor of a 5-10% increase. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals amounted to 13.5%, compared with 13.1% yr-on-yr. Net income and earnings/share (EPS) improved by 2%, to €514M and €6.18, respectively.
The company will propose to the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting on May 23, 2013, that a dividend of €1.00/share be paid for 2012. This represents an increase of about 18% yr-on-yr and results in a payout of roughly €83M.
The employees will also benefit from the strong earnings, receiving some €115M in profit-sharing payouts for the year. This figures compares to about €100M yr-on-yr.
The Asia Pacific region again proved to be a stabilizing factor in 2012. Sales grew by about 10% to about €2.2bn. In Greater China (Hong Kong, China, Taiwan), the €1bn
