chemistry
BASF with significant growth
BASF CEO Martin Brudermüller at the chemical company’s balance sheet press conference. Photo: Uwe Anspach/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
After a billion profit, BASF wants to pay out a little more money to the shareholders. However, it is unclear what the Russian sanctions mean for BASF’s majority holding Wintershall Dea.
The world’s largest chemical company, BASF, is increasingly burdened by high energy prices. After a jump in sales and profits in 2021, the group expects a decline in 2022.
“We started the year very strongly and in January achieved good figures above those of the same month last year,” said company boss Martin Brudermüller on Friday when the balance sheet for 2021 was presented. After the very strong recovery last year, the global economy is expected to be somewhat more moderate in 2022 grow.
In 2021, sales rose by a third year-on-year to 78.6 billion euros. Higher sales prices and volumes contributed to this. Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) more than doubled to EUR 7.8 billion. Here the company also benefited from the austerity measures. The bottom line was a profit attributable to the shareholders of 5.5 billion euros.
The board of directors plans to increase the dividend to EUR 3.40 per share, it said. In the previous year, BASF paid EUR 3.30 per share. For 2022, the Dax group expects sales of 74 to 77 billion euros and an operating result of up to 7.2 billion euros – i.e. less than last year.
BASF intends to continue listing its majority stake in Wintershall Dea. “We have made a strategic decision and believe that going public is the right way to go,” said CFO Hans-Ulrich Engel. Of course, he has to fit into the market environment. According to a press report, the investment company LetterOne of the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, which holds the remaining stake in the company, wants to prevent the move.
Originally, BASF had planned the IPO for the second half of 2020, but postponed it several times. Wintershall Dea is also involved in the financing of the controversial gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 through the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany and has given the project company a loan of 730 million euros. The future of the gas pipeline is uncertain given the Ukraine war.
What the US sanctions mean for the future of the pipeline will become clear in the coming weeks and months, Engel said. No operational activities of Wintershall Dea are currently affected by sanctions. “We also do not see that Wintershall Dea will be subject to sanctions.” The only link to a sanction is the loan. Engel expects that this will be repaid.
According to Brudermüller, the sanctions against Russia in the wake of the Ukraine war cannot yet be fully assessed. It would be “presumptuous to already assess any effects,” said the BASF boss. “On the first day after the invasion of Ukraine, it is still not entirely clear what the sanctions really contain.”