Brenntag (WKN A1DAHH), the global market leader in chemical distribution, continued to grow in financial year 2019, achieving an increase its key performance indicators
- Operating gross profit grows to just over 2.8 billion EUR (+3.4% year on year on a constant currency basis)
- Operating EBITDA reaches 1.0 billion EUR
- Earnings impacted by the difficult market environment in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) and North America
- Free cash flow stands well above the prior-year figure at 837 million EUR (+59.4%)
- Dividend to rise again to 1.25 EUR per share (+4.2%)
- Chief Executive Officer Christian Kohlpaintner said, “Going forward, we will not only maintain our highly market-centric approach, but also focus to a greater extent on optimizing our processes, procedures and structures and will extend our market position.”
Brenntag (ISIN DE000A1DAHH0), the global market leader in chemical and ingredients distribution, generated sales of 12,821.8 million EUR in 2019 in a difficult macroeconomic environment. Sales were therefore on a par with the prior-year figure on a constant currency basis. Operating gross profit rose by 3.4% to just over 2,821.7 million EUR. Operating EBITDA reached 1,001.5 million EUR, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%. The earnings growth is the result of the initial application of IFRS 16, the new financial reporting standard on leases. Excluding the effect of 116 million EUR attributable to this IFRS, Group earnings were down slightly on the strong prior-year figure.
At 837.3 million EUR, free cash flow was well above the figure for the prior-year period (525.2 million EUR). This is due primarily to an improvement in working capital compared with the previous year.
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