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Hambrecht: A promising start to 2005 |
On the occasion of the Full Year 2004 Reporting the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, spoke about the successes of 2004 and future challenges.
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You may listen to the recording of the interview or read the transcript.
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2004 has been a very successful year for BASF. What were the highlights?
The highlights are that we have outperformed the market growth. We have taken our customers serious and have really done an excellent job. Secondly, we have reduced our costs, we have become more efficient and finally this translates into earning power which we have not seen since 1996. We have earned a premium on our cost of capital, which is really outstanding.
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What makes BASF so attractive for our shareholders?
In the year 2004, the share price of BASF has outperformed all indices. We have grown by more than 23 percent and we are continuing to grow this year. And secondly our dividend yield is rather high with 3.2 percent. We have increased our dividend by 21 percent, so our shareholders participate in the success of BASF.
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What makes BASF so attractive for our employees?
I would say this is the overall approach we have. We have the best team in industry. We strive for higher efficiency. We are predictable. One can trust BASF. Our strategy is very solid and therefore we have come to the conclusion that we have the best team in industry and we can be proud of our success.
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What challenges is BASF facing in 2005?
2005 has a major challenge at this very moment in the high oil price, which translates into high raw material prices for the entire industry and will have an impact on growth and GDP growth all over the world. This is a big challenge we are facing. Secondly, looking at what we are going to do, we will just follow on from where we are coming from and certainly will become even better in 2005 and the entire team is working in this direction.
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