Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 59
Of all the functional cost areas, research and development
expenses exhibited the strongest growth in 2019, as in the
previous year. On account of the continuous expansion of
development activities in nearly all of our four divisions and
the expansion of strategic activities to build future fields
of business, the ratio of research and development costs to
sales increased from 6.7 % to 7.4 %. This trend was additionally
driven by initiatives in application-oriented research
and stepped-up activities to develop new technologies
that can be used to market innovative products. In order to
successfully implement these goals, we intensified our investments
in personnel and laboratories in 2019, which led in
particular to increased personnel expenses and depreciation
and amortization within the functional area of research and
development.
Administrative expenses in 2019 were lower than in 2018,
and the ratio of administrative expenses to sales remained
stable at the previous year’s level.
The balance of other operating income and expenses was
down on the previous year. This development is almost
exclusively due to one-time special expenses in 2019 resulting
from the harmonization of the organoclay product group
in the BYK division. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)
reached € 262.5 million, 10 % below the previous year’s
figure (€ 295.8 million) in operating terms.
At € 7.9 million, the financial result was significantly
better than in 2018 (€ - 7.2 million). The background for the
improvement was in particular interest income received
from tax mutual agreement procedures as well as changes in
the value of investments and an outstanding earn-out obli-
Multi-period overview of the earnings situation
Sales (in € million )
2015 2,059
2016 2,075
2017 2,247
2018 2,307
2019 2,249
EBITDA (in € million )
2015 391
2016 453
2017 470
2018 431
2019 416