Press release
Corporate Press
May 23, 2017

Evonik Implements Leadership Change

  • Chief Executive Officer Klaus Engel hands over to Christian Kullmann
  • Shareholders at annual meeting approve dividend payment of €1.15 per share
  • Investors endorse actions of executive board

Klaus Engel, long-standing chief executive officer of Evonik, handed over to Christian Kullmann at the end of the annual shareholders’ meeting. In Essen’s Grugahalle Engel bid farewell to the shareholders. Werner Müller, chairman of the supervisory board, thanked Engel for his great service.

„You successfully led the company through the global financial and economic crisis and steered the development of Evonik from a conglomerate to one of the leading specialty chemical companies,” said Müller. “Today Evonik is excellently positioned – and the recent acquisition of Air Products specialty additives business, which you successfully managed in May 2016, contributed to that.”

Engel joined Evonik’s executive board in 2007 and has been its chairman since 2009. “Evonik has all the prerequisites to actively and successfully shape the future and to take advantage of attractive and sustainable growth prospects,” Engel said. “Therefore, I can leave Evonik in the hands of my successor with confidence.”

With a stable dividend of €1.15 per share, Evonik again generated a return for investors of more than four percent, measured by the closing stock price on December 31. Shareholders at the annual meeting approved the dividend proposal with almost 100 percent and endorsed the actions of the executive and supervisory boards with similar majorities.

Shareholders voted in favour of Aldo Belloni, chief executive officer of Linde AG, joining the supervisory board. Belloni will replace Haniel CEO Stephan Gemkow, who resigned his mandate at the annual shareholders’ meeting.

 

Company information

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world with more than 35,000 employees. In fiscal 2016 the enterprise generated sales of around €12,7 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of about €2.165 billion.

Disclaimer

In so far as forecasts or expectations are expressed in this press release or where our statements concern the future, these forecasts, expectations or statements may involve known or unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results or developments may vary, depending on changes in the operating environment. Neither Evonik Industries AG nor its group companies assume an obligation to update the forecasts, expectations or statements contained in this release.