At the Annual General Meeting, the Chairman of the Management Board of SURTECO GROUP SE explained the development in 2023 and the current business situation to the shareholders. High interest rates in particular led to a noticeable decline in demand in the past financial year. Due to the acquired business areas of Omnova from March 1, 2023, sales in 2023 nevertheless increased to € 835 million (previous year: € 748 million). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) adjusted for one-off effects such as transaction and integration costs and provisions for personnel measures amounted to € 37.1 million in 2023, compared to € 40.2 million in the previous year.

With sales of € 222.3 million (previous year: € 205.7 million) and EBITDA-adjusted (the new key figure for analyzing continuous operational development) of € 27.6 million (previous year: € 19.1 million) in the first quarter, SURTECO made a good start to the business year 2024. Despite continued low demand, this positive start to the year was mainly due to the earnings contributions from the acquired business divisions and margin improvements in the expense items as a result of earnings from the Performance Plus program.

The items on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting were adopted by a large majority. Tobias Pott and Jörg Wissemann were re-elected to the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board and Management Board have decided to retain liquidity in the company for this year and not to submit a dividend proposal to the Annual General Meeting for approval.

At the Supervisory Board meeting following the Annual General Meeting, the Management Board contract of the Group’s CFO, Andreas Pötz, was extended by five years.

Further information on SURTECO GROUP SE and the company’s Annual General Meeting, including the voting results, can be found on the Internet at www.ir.surteco.com/hv.