Clariant Annual General Meeting Votes in Favor of Board Proposals

 

Approximately 500 shareholders, representing roughly 30% of the share capital recorded in Clariant's share register attended the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on April 2, 2009 in Basel.

 

The AGM approved the Annual Report of the company and discharged both the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. No dividend or similar payout to shareholders will be granted in 2009. Furthermore the AGM agreed to increase the conditional capital from the current CHF 32,000,000 to CHF 160,000,000 in order to create further refinancing headroom. The shareholders also made some editorial amendments to the Articles of the Association.

 

The term of members of the Board of Directors was reduced to three years from four years Klaus Jenny, member of the Board since 2005 was reelected. His term will end in 2012.

 

Clariant's Chairman, Jürg Witmer, highlighted the current difficult macro economic environment for the chemical industry and Clariant in particular. The company should be ready to face reality, prepare itself for some difficult months ahead and accept the need for decisive restructuring. "We should look upon the current economic crisis as an opportunity to renew Clariant and to shape an independent, profitable, global player in the chemical industry based in Switzerland", he said. "We don't need to reinvent the wheel. All we need is confidence, courage and leadership in order to navigate the company through the crisis and to build our future actively and on our own."

 

CEO Hariolf Kottmann emphasized that the root course for the company's insufficient performance compared to many competitors are basically structural deficits that need to be removed quickly. "We lag behind our peers regarding many important key performance indicators. The economic crisis only adds to these structural issues." In order to address both Clariant needs to have a stringent focus on cash generation, cost savings and complexity reduction. By the same token the company will make these restructuring efforts sustainable by entering into a continuous improvement.

 

Against the backdrop of ongoing low visibility Clariant assumes a continuing low demand in many markets. Hariolf Kottmann: "We don't expect an uptake of our sales within the next months and are prepared for a weak 2009."

 

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Clariant - Exactly your chemistry.

Clariant is a global leader in the field of specialty chemicals. Strong business relationships, commitment to outstanding service and wide-ranging application know-how make Clariant a preferred partner for its customers.

Clariant, which is represented on five continents with over 100 group companies, employs around 20,000 people. Head­quartered in Muttenz near Basel, Switzerland, it generated sales of CHF 8.1 billion in 2008. Clariant's businesses are organ­ized in four divisions: Textile, Leather & Paper Chemicals, Pigments & Additives, Masterbatches and Functional Chemicals.

Clariant is committed to sustainable growth springing from its own innovative strength. Clariant's innovative products play a key role in its customers' manufacturing and treatment processes or else add value to their end products. The company's success is based on the know-how of its people and their ability to identify new customer needs at an early stage and to work together with customers to develop innovative, efficient solutions.

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