Investors

Annual Shareholders’ Meeting and 1st Quarter 2016

Dear newsletter subscriber,

We are pleased to send you the latest edition of BASF’s Investor Relations Magazine. We publish this electronic journal four times a year immediately after the reporting dates.
You will continue to receive important news releases by email as soon as they are published.

Best wishes,
Your BASF Investor Relations Team

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Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

On April 29, 2016 about 6,000 visitors attended our Annual Shareholders’ Meeting in the Congress Center Rosengarten, Mannheim.
In total 46.55% of the share capital of BASF SE was represented.
Please note the date of our next Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on May 12, 2017 in Mannheim.

Dr. Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, speaking to the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting.

Latest Publication

Interim Report 1st Quarter 2016: BASF with slightly lower earnings before special items; outlook 2016 confirmed

  • Sales considerably down following divestiture of natural gas trading and storage business
  • EBIT before special items rises in Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions and Agricultural Solutions segments; lower earnings in the Oil & Gas and Chemicals segments
  • Outlook 2016: considerable sales decline expected; EBIT before special items forecast to be slightly below prior-year level
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BASF at the stock markets

Share performance
In an environment marked by weak economic figures from the United States and China – especially at the beginning of the year – as well as by a turbulent crude oil market, BASF shares closed the first quarter at €66.30, 6.3% below the closing price at the end of 2015. The German stock index DAX 30 and the European benchmark index DJ EURO STOXX 50 both fell over the same period by 7.2% and 7.8%, respectively. The global industry indexes DJ Chemicals and MSCI World Chemicals also weakened in the first three months of the year, declining by 0.5% and 3.1%, respectively.

Dividend of €2.90 per share
The Annual Shareholders’ Meeting approved a dividend payment of €2.90 per share. We stand by our ambitious dividend policy and pay out almost €2.7 billion to our shareholders. Based on the year-end share price for 2015, BASF shares offer a high dividend yield of around 4,1%. BASF is part of the DivDAX share index, which contains the fifteen companies with the highest dividend yield in the DAX 30. We aim to increase our dividend each year, or at least maintain it at the previous year’s level.

Good credit ratings and solid financing
BASF has solid financing and good credit ratings, especially in comparison with competitors in the chemical industry. Rating agency Moody’s last confirmed their “A1/P-1 outlook stable” rating on November 4, 2015. Standard & Poor’s adjusted their BASF rating from “A+/A-1 outlook negative” to “A/A-1 outlook stable” on March 14, 2016. This decision was largely based on the weaker market environment, especially for basic and agricultural chemicals; limited overall volumes growth; and the considerable drop in the price of crude oil. Uncertainty with regard to economic development in China was also taken into consideration.

In the first quarter of 2016, we issued a 15-year bond with a €200 million volume and a coupon of 1.5%. We furthermore tapped our 2013-2021 bond with a 1.875% coupon, increasing its volume by €300 million to €1 billion, effective April 5, 2016. With an issue price of over 100%, the tap resulted in an effective annual interest rate of 0.37%.

Since the beginning of the year, net debt fell by €190 million to €12.8 billion.

Last Update April 29, 2016