2014 was a successful year for Henkel. Despite a challenging and very competitive market environment, the company has achieved its financial targets and made very good progress in implementing its strategy for 2016, said Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted. “All three business units contributed with profitable organic growth to our good performance. The emerging markets were once again the main growth drivers for Henkel, with very strong organic sales growth of almost 8 percent. But also in mature markets, organic sales were up slightly,” he said. Looking at the fiscal year 2015, Rorsted said: “The economic environment remains challenging and very volatile. Due to the continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, we expect stagnation in Eastern Europe in 2015 as well as further pressure on the Russian economy and currency. We will continue to adapt our processes and structures, making us more flexible and efficient. We are focused on implementing our strategy in order to reach our ambitious financial targets for 2016.” “For the full fiscal year 2015 we expect organic sales growth of 3 to 5 percent. We expect our adjusted EBIT margin to rise to around 16 percent and adjusted earnings per preferred share to increase by approximately 10 percent,” Rorsted said, summarizing the financial targets for 2015. At 16,428 million euros, sales in the fiscal year 2014 were slightly higher than in the previous year. Adjusted for negative foreign exchange effects of 4.0 percent, sales improved by 4.4 percent. Organic sales, which exclude the impact of foreign exchange and acquisitions/divestments, showed a solid 3.4 percent increase. All business units posted solid organic sales growth and increased market share in the relevant markets. The Laundry & Home Care business unit achieved organic sales growth of 4.6 percent. Sales in the Beauty Care business unit grew organically by 2.0 percent and the Adhesive Technologies business unit recorded organic sales growth of 3.7 percent. The Management Board, Supervisory Board and Shareholders' Committee will propose an increase of 7.4 percent to 1.31 euros (previous year: 1.22 euros) in dividend per preferred share and an increase of 7.5 percent to 1.29 euros (previous year: 1.20 euros) in dividend per ordinary share at the annual general meeting. As in the previous year, the payout ratio would then be 30.0 percent. Net working capital as a percentage of sales once again reached a low level of 4.2 percent. However, mainly due to the negative effects of foreign exchange and acquisitions, it was 1.9 percentage points higher than in the previous year. From a regional perspective, business performance was particularly strong in the emerging markets. Despite political instability, growth was very strong in the Africa/Middle East region and solid in Eastern Europe. Asia (excluding Japan) matched the successes of previous years, achieving double-digit organic sales growth with significant contribution of operations in China. — SG
