Brenntag announces record results for financial year 2011

Brenntag, global market leader in chemical distribution, remains on its growth path and shows record results for the financial year 2011. "Brenntag was able to achieve strong growth rates in all key performance indicators. Drivers were the organic growth of the operating business, increased efficiencies, an improved financing mix as well as the earnings contribution of acquisitions. A strong free cash flow supports further internal and external growth as well as dividend payment," the company stated.

Sales increased by 15.4% based on constant exchange rates (13.5% as reported) from EUR 7,649.1 million in 2010 to EUR 8,679.3 million in 2011. Main reasons were higher selling prices and stronger volumes, partly due to acquisitions. "More importantly, Brenntag managed to grow gross profit by 10.0% based on constant exchange rates (8.0% as reported) to EUR 1,768.0 million (2010: EUR 1,636.4 million). Increased efficiencies provided for an even stronger growth in operating EBITDA, which rose by 12.2% based on constant exchange rates (9.7% as reported) to EUR 660.9 million (2010: EUR 602.6 million)," the company said. Thus Brenntag slightly exceeded the middle of its guidance range of EUR 650 – 670 million for operating EBITDA in 2011 and marked another record year.

Profit after tax enhanced by 90.5% and amounted to EUR 279.3 million in 2011 (2010: EUR 146.6 million), reflecting earnings per share attributable to Brenntag shareholders of EUR 5.39 (2010: EUR 2.93). Based on the strong results, Brenntag’s Board of Management and Supervisory Board will propose the General Shareholders’ Meeting on June 20, 2012 to pay a dividend of EUR 2.00 per share. This would slightly increase Brenntag’s dividend payout ratio to 37% of net profit attributable to Brenntag shareholders.

Steven Holland, CEO of Brenntag: “When I review our initial thoughts from the beginning of 2011 for the year ahead I suspect there are few who could have predicted some of the unprecedented events and challenges we were about to witness on a worldwide basis. Nevertheless the Brenntag business once again proved to be resilient even in such uncertain macroeconomic times. We achieved this through an enormous effort to capture new customers and growth from challenging markets and increasing levels of efficiency. Therewith we further improved our key performance indicators in the financial year 2011. With the acquisition of Multisol we enlarge our product focus of specialty chemicals including value added services in Europe. The strategically important acquisition of Zhong Yung in China allows us to be the only global chemical distributor who can offer its customers and suppliers an established network in all major economies of Asia Pacific.”

All regions contributed to the positive development of Brenntag’s results in the financial year 2011. Especially Asia Pacific showed a very strong development with exceptional growth rates.

Brenntag GmbH exhibits atCosmeticBusiness 2012: Hall 1 - Booth A 23

About Brenntag

Brenntag is the global market leader in full-line chemical distribution. Linking chemical manufacturers and chemical users, Brenntag provides business-to-business distribution solutions for industrial and specialty chemicals globally. With over 10,000 products and a world-class supplier base, Brenntag offers one-stop-shop solutions to more than 160,000 customers. The value-added services include just-in-time delivery, product mixing, formulation, repackaging, inventory management, drum return handling as well as extensive technical support. Headquartered in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, the company operates a global network with more than 400 locations in 68 countries. In 2011 the company realized global sales of EUR 8.7 billion (USD 12.1 billion) with nearly 13,000 employees.