Evonik grew again strongly in 2018. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10 % to 2.6 billion euros, compared with the previous year. All three chemical segments contributed to profit growth. The earnings forecast, that Evonik had raised after the first half of the year, was achieved despite external adversities in the second half of the year.
Sales rose 4 % to 15 billion euros. The adjusted EBITDA margin climbed to 17.3 %, about 1 percentage point higher than in 2017, taking Evonik a significant step towards its mid-term goal of earning a margin between 18 % and 20 %.
“Despite substantial external burdens, we delivered on our forecast for 2018,” said Christian Kullmann, Chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik. “The consistent implementation of our strategy has shown Evonik to be more robust, even in times of a weaker global economy and unusual weather patterns.” Adjusted net income for the year rose 29 % to 1.29 billion euros, reaching a record level.
As announced in fall 2017, Evonik is optimising its administrative and sales processes to permanently reduce costs by 200 million euros a year by the end of 2020. Savings of 50 million euros are already reflected in 2018 earnings and measures to achieve the remaining 150 million euros were identified during the course of last year.
With a new sustainability strategy 2020+, Evonik has set itself the goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 % by 2025, using 2008 as a reference year. An internal price for CO2 will be taken into account for important investment decisions. At the same time, Evonik is expanding activities that will increase the share of products and solutions that have particular sustainability benefits. The company already generates about half of its sales from applications that have a proven contribution to improve resource efficiency for the customer.
Evonik expects adjusted EBITDA in 2019 to be at about the level of 2018 or slightly lower.
