Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 79
In addition to regional factors, growth impetus can also
result from individual branches of industry. Further potential
could be opened up, in particular, if the automotive sector
and the construction industry showed a positive development,
or if there was a trend reversal concerning the use of silver
and gray colors in the consumer sector.
Innovation
We have to continually streamline our product and service
portfolio to be able to continue to pursue our strategy for
profitable growth in the long term. Should ALTANA manage
to enhance its innovativeness more quickly than expected
or to increase its share of new products for which there is a
high demand beyond the target level, there would be even
better prospects for growth. The same applies if we entered
new markets or opened up new application fields for our
products.
Business Combinations
and Portfolio Measures
Acquisitions play a key role in ALTANA’s long-term value creation.
In recent years, we have continually advanced the
Group strategically due to acquisitions. At the same time, we
cleansed our portfolio of those activities that were not
in line with our strategic aims and for which there were no
long-term value-creation perspectives within the Group.
In the future, we intend to continue to boost our growth
by acquiring businesses and activities. This is an essential
prerequisite for us to achieve our strategic growth targets.
Should opportunities arise in the future that exceed our
expectations, these new activities could help us strengthen
our market positions and open up new market segments.
This, in turn, could help us achieve our strategic targets more
quickly.
Synergies
The ALTANA Group is decentralized to a large extent. Still,
in some areas of the value-creation chain and in certain
management functions, central units support the divisions
and play a coordinating role. To the extent that we man-
age to push forward the networks within the Group more
strongly than expected, this may spawn further potential
to improve efficiency.
The Management Board’s Overall Statement
on the Anticipated Development of the
Group Including Its Overall View of the Risk
and Opportunity Situation
In 2019, we expect the deterioration of the economic framework
conditions and the increasing uncertainty about the macroeconomic
situation to continue. In this environment, we expect
ALTANA to achieve operating sales growth of 1 % to 5 %,
with earnings profitability remaining roughly at the previous year’s
level. The key performance indicators for value-oriented
management
should improve slightly compared to the preceding
fiscal year.
We believe that the risk of burdens from a development of the
global economy that is worse than we expected or even recessive,
or in important core regions, continues to exist. In addition,
considerable risks to our short-term sales and earnings performance
are posed by the higher price volatility on the raw-materials
markets, by impairments for intangible assets acquired
within the framework of acquisitions, and by short-term exchange-
rate fluctuations.
Overall, we have not found any risks that could endanger the
continued existence of the company. The risks we face are set
against opportunities that could enable us to achieve sales and
earnings performance surpassing our forecasts.