DGAP-News

AlzChem AG is planning an IPO in Frankfurt - Seite 2

says CEO Ulli Seibel in explaining AlzChem's positioning.

A specialist for chemical products with an attractive financial profile

AlzChem AG's operating activities are divided into the business segments
Specialty Chemicals, Basics & Intermediates and Other & Holding. In the
first nine months of 2016, sales totaled EUR 250.5 million (9M/2015: EUR
248.2 million). Of this, 51.1% (EUR 128.0 million) was attributable to the
Specialty Chemicals segment, 41.6% (EUR 104.3 million) to Basics &
Intermediates and another 7.3% (EUR 18.2 Million) to Other & Holding. The
EBITDA margin in the first nine months of 2016 amounted to 14.3% for
AlzChem (prior to non-operating one-off effects in the course of the
planned IPO) and to 23.4% for the Specialty Chemicals business segment. In
the first nine months of 2016, 40.8% of sales were generated in Germany and
59.2% abroad. Investments in innovations in the Specialty Chemicals
business segment over the last few years have made a clear contribution to
the company's profitability.

Specialty Chemicals, the largest business segment, comprises the
manufacture and distribution of high-quality chemical products for various
end markets, including agricultural feed additives (under the brand
CreAMINO), food supplements (under the brand Creapure), high-purity
guanidine salts such as guanidine hydrochloride and guanidinium thiocyanate
for biotechnology, diagnostics and pharmaceutical industries (under the
name BioSELECT) as well as silicon nitride powder (under the brand Silzot)
for the ceramic, coating and photovoltaic industries.

The Basics & Intermediates segment includes the production of chemical
intermediates based on the starting materials calcium carbide and calcium
cyanamide. These intermediate products are sold either directly to third
parties or further processed into specialty chemical products. Intermediate
products that can be sold directly include: special agricultural
fertilizers (under the brand Perlka) as well as hot metal desulphurization
mixtures for metallurgy (under the brand CaD). According to IHS Chemicals,
AlzChem is the largest supplier of calcium carbide in Europe (excluding the
former USSR), with over 50% of its production capacity dedicated to it.
This market position was achieved, inter alia, with the 2014 acquisition of
today's Nordic Carbide AB in Sweden.

In the third segment, Other & Holding, all other activities are grouped
together. Essentially, these services center around the chemical park in
Trostberg, which is operated by AlzChem (partly for third parties).