Full-Year 2020 Reporting on February 26, 2021

BASF on the capital market

Proposed dividend of €3.30 per share

As in the previous year, a dividend of €3.30 per share is to be proposed to the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, a payment of €3.0 billion to shareholders. Due to the exceptionally high economic burden caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which also impacted the BASF Group’s free cash flow, the proposed dividend per share will not be increased for the first time since the 2009 business year.

Based on the year-end share price for 2020, BASF shares offer a high dividend yield of around 5.1%. BASF is part of the DivDAX share index, which contains the 15 companies with the highest dividend yield in the DAX 30.

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Broad base of international shareholders

With over 700,000 shareholders, BASF is one of the largest publicly owned companies with a high free float. An analysis of the shareholder structure carried out at the end of 2020 showed that, at around 20% of share capital, the United States and Canada made up the largest regional group of institutional investors. Institutional investors from Germany accounted for around 11%. Shareholders from the United Kingdom and Ireland hold 8% of BASF shares, while investors from the rest of Europe hold a further 12% of capital. Approximately 36% of the company’s share capital is held by private investors, nearly all of whom reside in Germany. BASF is therefore one of the DAX 30 companies with the largest percentage of private shareholders.

BASF – a sustainable investment

BASF has participated in the program established by the international organization CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) for reporting on data relevant to climate protection since 2004. CDP is an international organization representing around 515 investors with over $106 trillion in assets and more than 150 major organizations with $4 trillion in purchasing power. In 2020, BASF again scored an A– on CDP’s Climate List, giving it Leadership status. In the scoring framework used by CDP in 2020, BASF was ranked among the best 25% of the participating chemical companies. To achieve its climate target of CO₂-neutral growth until 2030, BASF is continually optimizing existing processes and is increasingly using energy from renewable sources. BASF is also developing completely new low-emission production processes. The company bundles this work in its ambitious carbon management program.

In the CDP assessment for sustainable water management, BASF again achieved the top grade of A and thus Leadership status. The assessment takes into account how transparently companies report on their water management activities and how they reduce risks such as water scarcity. CDP also evaluates the extent to which product developments can contribute to sustainable water management for customers of the companies assessed. BASF continues to implement its sustainable water management target at all relevant production sites (Verbund sites and sites in water stress areas).

BASF participated in the CDP’s “Forest” assessment for the first time in 2020 and was ranked A–. As a participant in various value chains, BASF is committed to ending deforestation in these supply chains. One of BASF’s measures to protect the forests is its voluntary commitment to source 100% of its palm oil and palm kernel oil from certified sustainable sources by 2020. We met this target in 2020.

BASF continued to be included in the MSCI ESG Ratings in 2020 with the second-highest score of AA. The analysts highlighted BASF’s Verbund system as a key competitive advantage for resource-efficient processes. BASF’s emissions intensity for greenhouse gases and air pollutants – one of the lowest compared with competitors in the chemical industry – was also assessed positively.

More information on Sustainability Ratings and Rankings