On the liabilities side, changes resulted primarily from earnings
related increases in equity, increases in trade payables,
and exchange rate-related adjustments. The Group’s equity
improved overall by € 276.5 million or 12 % to € 2,675.4
million (previous year: € 2,398.9 million). The positive result
for the year made a significant contribution to this. At
74 %, the equity ratio as of December 31, 2021, was slightly
above the previous year’s level (73 %).
There was no significant change in total non-current
liabilities at the end of 2021. Overall, non-current liabilities
decreased by € 13.2 million to € 432.5 million (previous
year: € 445.7 million).
However, the total current liabilities reported on the
balance sheet as of December 31, 2021, increased from
€ 418.5 million to € 528.2 million. Owing to the significant
increase in business activity and the price increases for
energy, freight, and raw materials, trade payables also grew,
rising by € 61.3 million to € 247.8 million in the year under
review.
The balance of cash and cash equivalents, short-term
financial assets, current marketable securities, loans granted,
financial liabilities, and employee benefit obligations re-
sulted in net financial assets of € 67.7 million at the balance
sheet date of December 31, 2021. This corresponds to an
increase of € 33.6 million compared with the previous year.
Principles and Goals of Our Financing Strategy
We generally aim to finance our operating business activities
from the cash flow from operating activities. The same
applies to the need for capital expenditure, which caters to
the continual expansion of business activities.
As a result, our financing strategy is oriented to keeping
the cash and cash equivalents generated within the Group
centralized. In addition, a financing framework is sought that
enables ALTANA to flexibly and quickly carry out acqui-
sitions and even large investment projects beyond the accustomed
scope.
To successfully implement these goals, we manage nearly all
of the Group’s internal financing centrally via ALTANA AG.
To this end, cash pools are set up for the important currency
areas.
In June 2021, ALTANA restructured its long-term Group
financing: Since June 2021, ALTANA has had access to
€ 250.0 million in the form of a syndicated credit facility from
an international bank consortium for the next five to seven
years. In addition, ALTANA has had access to loans from the
European Investment Bank (EIB) of up to € 200.0 million
since the end of June 2021 for the development of climate-
friendly, digital, and sustainable products. Neither facility
was utilized in the 2021 fiscal year.
This financing structure offers ALTANA the flexibility it
needs to appropriately take advantage of short-term or
investment-intensive growth opportunities. The distribution
of the maturities of the financing instruments we use
enables us to optimally control repayment of liabilities with
inflows from operating cash flow.
Off-balance-sheet financing instruments result from
bank guarantees, purchasing commitments, and guarantees
for pension plans. Details on the existing financing instruments
are provided in the complete Consolidated Financial
Statements.
Liquidity Analysis
Key figures
2020 2021 Δ %
in € million
Cash flow from
operating activities 373.6 244.4 - 35
Cash flow from
investing activities (220.0) (246.8) - 12
Cash flow from
financing activities (99.9) (61.3) 39
62 Business Development