Henkel solutions support sustainability

“2013 was a very successful year for Henkel. Despite a challenging and highly competitive market environment, we achieved our financial targets and made significant progress in implementing our strategy 2016,” said Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted. “We achieved profitable growth and increased market share in all our business units. All regions contributed to the solid organic sales growth. As in previous years, emerging markets showed a very strong development. In these countries, however, foreign exchange effects had a stronger impact on reported sales.”

Looking at the fiscal year 2014, Rorsted said: “The economic environment remains challenging and we expect persisting foreign exchange effects, particularly in the first half of the year. Thus, we will continue to further simplify and improve our processes and structures, making us more flexible and more efficient. We are focused on implementing our strategy in order to deliver on our ambitious financial targets for 2016.”

“For the full fiscal year 2014 we expect organic sales growth to be between 3 and 5 percent. We expect our adjusted EBIT margin to increase to around 15.5 percent and adjusted earnings per preferred share to increase in the high single digits,” Rorsted said, summarizing the financial targets for 2014.

Commenting on the proposed increase of Henkel's dividend payout ratio, Rorsted said: “We want our shareholders to benefit from our improved performance. Our significantly increased profitability and financial strength allow us to raise the dividend payout ratio from around 25 percent currently to 30 percent for 2013. In the future, the ratio should be between 25 percent and 35 percent of net income after non-controlling interests and adjusted for exceptional items. The dividend increase will not impact our strategic flexibility or our conservative financial strategy.”