ALTANA generated sales of 3 billion euros for the first time in the 2022 fiscal year. Sales rose by 13 percent to 3,021 million euros (previous year: 2,667 million euros). The specialty chemicals group has thus achieved growth of almost 40 percent in the past two years despite the very challenging and volatile environment.
Following significantly higher volumes in 2021, growth in 2022 was mainly driven by price/mix and positive foreign-exchange effects. Adjusted for acquisition and exchange-rate effects, sales increased by around 8 percent. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were above the average of the previous years, at 452 million euros, but 6 percent below the figure for 2021 due to high material, energy, and freight costs. The EBITDA margin was 15 percent due to inflation and therefore below the long-term target range.
“In spite of all the challenges, ALTANA once again completed a successful year in 2022," said Martin Babilas, CEO of ALTANA AG. “The past year once again made two qualities of the entire ALTANA team clear: Our company is highly resilient even in very turbulent times, primarily due to our financial and innovative strength as well as our flexible and customer-oriented positioning. Secondly, we not only react to external factors of influence, but actively make important contributions to meeting the great challenges of our time, first and foremost climate change."
Despite the volatile environment, in 2022 ALTANA further increased its already high research and development expenditure to 193 million euros, a rise of more than 7 percent over the previous year.
ALTANA’s innovation pipeline produced, among other things, the market launch of ECOLEAF, a technology for producing metallic label decorations with a significantly improved environmental profile. The system, developed in the ACTEGA division, not only eliminates the use of plastic carrier foils, but also avoids wasting metals by using only the amount of metallic pigments required for the respective application. As a result, the carbon footprint can be reduced by more than 50 percent vis-à-vis conventional processes.
Depending on when the economy starts to recover, ALTANA expects sales to increase slightly in 2023. Depending on the development of the price situation in the field of material, logistics, and energy costs and the remaining uncertainties related to the sufficient availability of certain raw materials and energy sources, ALTANA forecasts slightly improved earnings profitability for 2023.
