Review of the 2021 fiscal year

In fiscal year 2021, the Group demonstrated great strength in a challenging market environment. All three business sectors, Life Science, Healthcare and Electronics, reported organic sales growth. Despite challenging conditions due to the pandemic, we succeeded yet again in avoiding significant disruptions to our supply chains and operations while at the same time, the safety of our global workforce continued to be our top priority.

In the Life Science business sector, our products and services enabled our customers worldwide to excel in areas such as scientific research and biotechnological manufacturing. Our capacity was expanded in bioprocessing and targeted acquisitions were made to broaden the portfolio. In addition, the Life Science business saw strong demand in both its core business and in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the Healthcare business sector, in addition to strengthening the business with established products, the focus was on research for and development of specialty medicines. The approval of Tepmetko^® is particularly noteworthy in this regard. In addition, there was significant growth in the immuno-oncology area in connection with the drug Bavencio^® and in the therapeutic areas of neurology and immunology mainly through Mavenclad^®.

The Electronics sector benefited from strong customer demand especially in the semiconductor industry. In light of the strong business performance, the completion of the Bright Future transformation program, originally scheduled for five years, was achieved — two years earlier than planned. At the same time, the new “Level Up” growth program was launched. This is intended to exploit the growth opportunities associated with the significant increase in global demand for innovative semiconductor and display materials. In addition to considerable ongoing investment in research and development (R&D), the global presence of the Electronics business was further significantly expanded. It was decided to build or expand R&D and production facilities in all relevant regions including China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the United States and Germany close to our customers.

As a result, a large number of milestones were achieved across the business units in 2021. What we are doing in the area of sustainability has been intensified in all business sectors and group functions, e.g., in the R&D areas but also in the purchasing, finance and strategy units. We aim to develop products that create sustainable added value for society, for example via circular economy approaches. We also want to embed sustainability in all our value chains and have started a supplier decarbonization program in fiscal 2021. To further reduce our resource consumption, new greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption reduction targets were set in 2021, and we have applied to join the Science Based Targets Initiative. These targets underpin our ambitious sustainability strategy, which we unveiled at the end of 2020. The implementation of the sustainability strategy was further supported by the development of key performance indicators and a sustainability factor for compensation of the Executive Board.

Additionally, the year was characterized by personnel changes in the Executive Board. After a decade of successful service on the Executive Board, Stefan Oschmann left the company as planned to pursue other opportunities. Belén Garijo, a highly experienced and internationally recognized manager, took over as Chair of the Executive Board. She has been with our company since 2011 and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2015. In addition, the Executive Board was strengthened with two internationally experienced managers. Peter Guenter has assumed responsibility for the Healthcare sector while Matthias Heinzel is now in charge of the Life Science sector.

Following the entry into force of the Act Implementing the Second Shareholders’ Rights Directive (ARUG II) and the reformed GCGC, the compensation system for the Executive Board was adjusted with effect from January 1, 2021. The detailed compensation system is published on our website. The adjusted compensation system was approved at the Annual General Meeting 2021 with a voting result of 87.08% . The compensation system for the Supervisory Board was also presented at the 2021 Annual General Meeting and approved with 99.64%.

Compensation for fiscal year 2021 – Summary

Summary of the compensation for the Executive Board members’ performance up to December 31, 2021 – voluntary diclosure

¹ Belén Garijo is Chair of the Executive Board since May 1, 2021.
² In the calculation of the average compensation of the further members of the Executive Board (EB), the compensation of Kai Beckmann and Marcus Kuhnert are taken into account. Peter Guenter and Matthias Heinzel joined the Executive Board in the fiscal year 2021 and therefore did not receive any compensation from the LTIP 2019. Taking their compensation into account would therefore lead to a distorted presentation.