Dividend: Adjustment of the dividend proposal to maintain the eligibility for KfW support

Against the background of the global economic crisis triggered by the corona pandemic, the Board of Executive Directors and the Supervisory Board of K+S Aktiengesellschaft have precautionary decided on 8 May 2020 to adjust the dividend proposal for 2019 to the legal minimum dividend of € 0.04 per share (previous dividend proposal € 0.15 per share). This leads to a total dividend payment of € 7.7 million (previously € 28.7 million). The dividend has to be adjusted in order to maintain the eligibility for a KfW state-secured loan.

In the course of the spread of the corona virus, K+S has implemented extensive measures to minimize the risk of infection at the manufacturing sites. This has enabled production to be maintained at almost all locations. The efficiency losses associated with these measures and the short-term, corona-related downtimes of some smaller sites had a negative impact on the quarterly result of just € 10 million.

However, the important contract between large potash producers and Chinese customers was delayed until the end of April due to the corona pandemic, which has an impact on the expected recovery in potash prices this year. To this end, further burdens from the corona pandemic cannot currently be ruled out.

Due to the continuing uncertainty on the capital and financial markets about the economic consequences of the crisis, it cannot currently be ruled out that liquidity sourcing will be made significantly more difficult.

Against this background, K+S is examining all options available to ensure financial flexibility and liquidity. A state-secured KfW loan is one of these options.