In 2018, the sales volume of covestro reached 14.6 billion yuan

Kostar's sales in 2018 reached 14.6 billion yuan, up 3.4%. Core business sales rose 1.6%, and continued to grow. Group sales rose to 14.6 billion euros. EBITDA fell to 3.2 billion euros. Proposed dividend distribution per share reached 2.40 euros. About 1.7 billion euros will be returned to shareholders through share buyback and dividend distribution. Financial guidance for 2019 further increases in sales and The impact of the decline in profit margin ﹣ despite the challenges in 2018, covestro still achieved strong performance. Core business sales rose 1.6%, while group sales rose 3.4% to 14.6 billion euros. Due to the weak business performance in the fourth quarter of last year and the favorable market environment in 2017, the profit for the whole year of 2018 cannot reach the level of the previous year. In spite of the decline in product sales price and profit margin in the second half of the year, the company's annual EBITDA still reached 3.2 billion euros, down 6.8% from the record year-on-year 2017. Net profit fell 9.3% to 1.8 billion euros. On the basis of the above business performance, covestro plans to pay shareholders a dividend of 2.40 euros per share, an increase of about 9% over the previous year (2.20 euros).

"The market demand for our high-tech materials is still strong. This is a solid foundation for our long-term profitable growth, especially in an increasingly challenging market environment. " "In 2018, we released important strategic measures to actively promote this growth path, including investing in specific business areas with more than average demand prospects and focusing more on efficiency improvement," explained Dr. Markus steilemann, chief executive Demand is growing further, while profit margin is declining. Although there are many changes in 2018, kostrong has also made steady achievements in other key indicators. Free operating cash flow (focf) fell to € 1.7bn due to increased investment. The return on capital occupied (roce) is 29.5%, far exceeding the average level of several years. Net financial liabilities at the end of fy18 were 348 million euros, which remained low. "2018 is still a successful year for covestro, although we failed to achieve record business performance in 2017 after a strong start." Dr. Thomas Toepfer, chief financial officer of keschuang, said: "in the past two years, the market supply has been extremely tight, especially in the TDI market. We expect demand to continue to grow in 2019. At the same time, because of competitive pressure, the profit margin will be greatly reduced. "

The changeable competition situation affects the financial guidance. Kostron expects that the sales volume of its core business will achieve a low to medium single digit percentage growth in 2019, while the free operating cash flow will remain between 300 million and 700 million euros. The company expects the return on capital occupied to be between 8% and 13%. Due to increased competitive pressure, costron expects its EBITDA for the whole year to be between 1.5 billion and 2 billion euros. EBITDA is expected to be around EUR 440 million in the first quarter of 2019. Investment to ensure long-term growth in 2018, covestro took important strategic steps to further consolidate the group's competitive position, one of the key is to invest in profitable growth areas. For example, covestro has announced the construction of a world-class factory in beton, the United States, to manufacture MDI, a hard foam precursor. Another example is to expand the production scale of special films with high profit margin in four bases around the world. At the same time, the company is committed to reducing the impact of cyclical fluctuations through a diversified product line. At present, more than 50% of the sales revenue of covestro comes from the anti cycle business. Pay more attention to efficiency and efficiency. Kostron also launched a project in 2018 to improve efficiency and efficiency. By 2021 at the latest, the annual cost savings can reach 350 million euros, with the goal of limiting the growth of operating costs. To achieve this goal, Cisco will continue to strengthen cross departmental collaboration and increase the application of digital solutions. In the next few months, Cisco will implement the initial measures: to build a new centralized market department to integrate the market and communication functions of various global segments.

Digital transformation has taken shape. Since 2017, Cisco has integrated all its digital activities through digital @ covestro strategic project, aiming to promote the digital transformation of the group. The project has achieved initial success in recent months - sales and marketing channels have been expanding and new online sales platforms have been established. Since 2018, with the help of high-performance computer systems, a global team is committed to faster and more efficient application development in the field of R & D. In the field of production, predictive maintenance and equipment maintenance are realized by developing new software solutions. Stock repurchase plan completed in 2018, kostron continued to implement the stock repurchase plan started in the previous year. The Company repurchased more than 9.8% of the issued share capital in three batches, worth about 1.5 billion euros. As a result, including dividends, kostron returned about 1.7 billion euros to shareholders last year. The director accountant plans to propose a new plan to the forthcoming annual general meeting of shareholders to repurchase up to 10% of the total stock. All departments achieved sales growth. In 2018, the core business sales of polyurethane business segment showed stable performance, achieving a small growth of 0.8%.

EBITDA decreased by 19.1% to EUR 1763 million compared to 2017. Despite the year-round increase in total sales and average selling prices, these increases are still unable to offset the negative impact of increasingly fierce competition, especially in the fourth quarter of 2018. In addition, the sector's non recurring earnings in fiscal 2017 was one of the reasons for the decline of editda in 2018. Core business sales of polycarbonate business increased by 3.0%. EBITDA rose 21.5% to EUR 1036 million. The reasons for the profit increase include the overall positive profit margin trend, the increase of total sales volume and the income from the sale of the U.S. plate business. But in the fourth quarter of 2018, profits were affected by an increasingly competitive environment. Core business sales of coatings, adhesives and special chemicals increased by 2.5%. EBITDA decreased by 4.5% to 464 million euros due to rising raw material prices and negative exchange rates. Fourth quarter: the competition is more fierce, and the special expenses are increased. In the fourth quarter of 2018, the sales volume of core business of covestro increased by 1.7%. At the same time, the market environment has increased dramatically. Group sales fell 7.1%. In addition to the more fierce market competition, other negative factors include the impact of non recurring profit and loss (such as the increase of logistics cost due to the decrease of water level of Rhine River) and related expenses of the ongoing efficiency improvement plan. As a result, EBITDA decreased by 66.7% to EUR 293 million in the fourth quarter, while net profit decreased by 86.0% to EUR 79 million (Q4 2017: EUR 566 million). Free operating cash flow in the fourth quarter was EUR 363 million, down 44.6% from the same quarter of the previous year (EUR 655 million).