- Special dividend of €33.00<o:p></o:p>
- Regular dividend for 2006 of €1.30 and bonus dividend of €0.50<o:p></o:p>
- The new ALTANA concentrates on specialty chemicals<o:p></o:p>
- Matthias Wolfgruber and Martin Babilas form the new Management Board team <o:p></o:p>
The shareholders of ALTANA AG (NYSE: AAA, FSE: ALT) have approved the proposals on the dividend distribution made by the Management and Supervisory Boards at today’s Annual General Meeting in Frankfurt. On the basis of the shareholders´ resolutions, ALTANA will pay out a special dividend of €33.00, resulting from the sale of ALTANA Pharma to Nycomed. In addition, shareholders will receive a dividend of €1.30 for the business year 2006 as well as a bonus dividend of €0.50. As a result each shareholder will receive a dividend totaling €34.80 per share. The total dividend payment amounts to €4,732 million. <o:p></o:p>
In the last business year in its former Group structure, ALTANA’s consoldiated sales rose by 18% to €3.9 billion. Adjusted for exchange rate as well as divestment and acquisition effects operating sales growth was 9%. At €3.3 billion, international business accounts for 84% of total sales. Earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by 14% to €779 million. With 20%, the return on sales (EBT) was only slightly below theprior-year’s level despite special burdens due to the Group restructuring. <o:p></o:p>
ALTANA AG now concentrates onits specialty chemicals business. For 2006 ALTANA Chemie reported a strongly acquisition-driven increase in sales of 43% on the prior year to approximately €1.3 billion. Adjusted for divestment and aquisition effects ( 33%) as well as minor exchange rate effects operating growth was 10%.<o:p></o:p>
Business volume could be expanded without diluting profitability. In line with the sales development, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to €237 million, up by 45%. At 18.3%, the EBITDA mg lies within the medium to long-term target return range of 18% to 20%. At €147 million in 2006, earnings before taxes(EBT) were up by 42% on the prior year.<o:p></o:p>
Effective as of the end of the Annual General Meeting, Dr. Matthias L.Wolfgruber (53) was appointed new Chairman of the Management Board of ALTANAAG. Martin Babilas (35) was appointed new Chief Financial Officer of ALTANA. ALTANA’s previous CEO, Prof. Nikolaus Schweickart (63), who was a member of the Management Board for 20 years, 17 thereof as CEO, retires, as does Dr. Hermann Küllmer (63), member of the Management Board since 1990. The Supervisory Board acknowledged the efforts of the two Management Board members who leave their mandates and extended its gratitude to them for their many years of successful management of the company. <o:p></o:p>
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This press release contains forward-looking statements, i.e. current estimates orexpectations of future events or future results. These statements are based onbeliefs of ALTANA’s management as well as assumptions made by and informationcurrently available to ALTANA. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.ALTANA does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to updateforward-looking statements to reflect facts, circumstances or events that haveoccurred or changed after such statements have been made.