Henkel is planning to increase its dividend to record high despite its first declines in both turnover and profits in years, the German consumer goods company announced on Thursday.
With its 2018 business figures, Henkel announced the first decline in turnover in five years while profits declined for the first time in 10 years.
The company recorded a slight decrease of 0.6 percent in turnover to 19.9 billion euros (22.6 billion U.S. dollars) while net profits even declined by 8.3 percent to 2.3 billion euros in the fiscal year 2018.
"Negative currency effects" would have been responsible for a decline in sales of 1.1 billion euros, according to Henkel.
Nevertheless, the company is planning to increase the dividend of their shares by 3.4 percent to 1.85 euro per preferred share and 1.83 euros per ordinary share. This would be the highest dividend payment in the history of Henkel.
After the publication of the annual business figures, Henkel's share price increased by about 0.5 percent to around 89 euros at the German stock index DAX. However, Henkel's share prices are still far away from their 2018 annual high of around 114 euros in March.
Henkel would be perfectly healthy as "we continued to deliver profitable growth" in 2018, said Hans Van Bylen, chief executive officer (CEO) of Henkel. Besides "substantial negative currency effects" the company would have faced increased "direct material prices" in 2018, added CEO Van Bylen.
Adhesive Technologies, Henkel's glue business, remained the most important with a slight increase of 0.2 percent in turnover to 9.4 billion euros and adjusted operating profits grew by 1.6 percent to 1.8 billion euros.
Van Bylen reaffirmed his plans of investing an additional 300 million euros in order to "capture additional growth opportunities" mainly in Henkel's consumer goods businesses as well as to further "accelerate the digital transformation" of the German company that was founded in 1876.
Taking the "increased growth investments from 2019 onwards" into account, Henkel is expecting organic growth rates between 2 and 4 percent for the fiscal year 2019.
With its 2018 business figures, Henkel announced the first decline in turnover in five years while profits declined for the first time in 10 years.
The company recorded a slight decrease of 0.6 percent in turnover to 19.9 billion euros (22.6 billion U.S. dollars) while net profits even declined by 8.3 percent to 2.3 billion euros in the fiscal year 2018.
"Negative currency effects" would have been responsible for a decline in sales of 1.1 billion euros, according to Henkel.
Nevertheless, the company is planning to increase the dividend of their shares by 3.4 percent to 1.85 euro per preferred share and 1.83 euros per ordinary share. This would be the highest dividend payment in the history of Henkel.
After the publication of the annual business figures, Henkel's share price increased by about 0.5 percent to around 89 euros at the German stock index DAX. However, Henkel's share prices are still far away from their 2018 annual high of around 114 euros in March.
Henkel would be perfectly healthy as "we continued to deliver profitable growth" in 2018, said Hans Van Bylen, chief executive officer (CEO) of Henkel. Besides "substantial negative currency effects" the company would have faced increased "direct material prices" in 2018, added CEO Van Bylen.
Adhesive Technologies, Henkel's glue business, remained the most important with a slight increase of 0.2 percent in turnover to 9.4 billion euros and adjusted operating profits grew by 1.6 percent to 1.8 billion euros.
Van Bylen reaffirmed his plans of investing an additional 300 million euros in order to "capture additional growth opportunities" mainly in Henkel's consumer goods businesses as well as to further "accelerate the digital transformation" of the German company that was founded in 1876.
Taking the "increased growth investments from 2019 onwards" into account, Henkel is expecting organic growth rates between 2 and 4 percent for the fiscal year 2019.
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