Press release

Heerlen, NL, 08 Mar 2019 10:00 CET

Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, today announces the publication of its 2018 Integrated Annual Report, in which it reports on its progress and performance during 2018 in terms of People, Planet and Profit, creating value for all stakeholders.

The report offers all DSM’s stakeholders (shareholders, customers, employees, civil society) detailed insights into the company’s successful delivery of Strategy 2018, its business development, financial results, environmental and social performance, and corporate governance, as well as its purpose and new Strategy 2021.

DSM’s purpose-led, performance-driven Strategy 2021 addresses key megatrends and reinforces the company’s engagement with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its focus domains of Nutrition & Health, Climate & Energy, and Resources & Circularity.

Feike Sijbesma, CEO/Chairman DSM Managing Board, commented: “For DSM 2018 was a very successful year in almost every way. The hard work and engagement of our employees delivered very strong results of which we can all be justly proud. Financially, we delivered well ahead of our strategic targets, creating significant value in all our businesses. In sustainability we outperformed our aspirations. Although, our safety performance needs to further improve, our people feel more inspired, engaged and committed than ever. We are well placed to move forward and to deliver on our 2021 strategic targets, to drive continued above-market organic growth and deliver further improvements in profitability, returns and sustainability.”

The report demonstrates DSM’s consistent progress as a growth company with ambitious business and sustainability efforts that creates value for all its stakeholders across the three dimensions of People, Planet and Profit. Key highlights include:

• Outperformance of ambitious financial targets and delivery of strong organic growth in all businesses, with greatly improved operational and financial performance (6% organic topline growth, as well as EBITDA growth, even 10% at constant currencies for the underlying business), also resulting in a 100bps increase of ROCE for the underlying business for the group.
• Improvement of the company’s environmental footprint, delivering a 33% efficiency improvement in greenhouse gas emissions (versus 2008), as well as a 5.1% energy efficiency improvement (versus 2015), and 41% of electricity purchased from renewable sources, compared to 3% in 2015.
• Consistent increase in the gender diversity of the company’s executive population (from 17 to 19% female, and now 3 out of 7 Executive Committee members being female), improvement of its employee engagement (from 75% to all time high of 76%), and delivery on its under-represented nationalities target (60%) ahead of schedule.
• External recognition from renowned organizations: Fortune Change the World List, Responsible Business of the Year Award from Ethical Corporation, high rankings on ESG Benchmarks including Sustainalytics (placed number one out of 135 companies), MSCI (in leading group), Dow Jones Sustainability Index (industry group leader) and EcoVadis (top 1% of its industry).

In addition to its audit opinion on the Financial Statements, KPMG provided as well for the first time a reasonable assurance opinion on the sustainability information contained within DSM’s 2018 Integrated Annual Report, which represents an important milestone in the company’s sustainability efforts. This report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards: Comprehensive option. The 2018 report is also aligned wherever possible with the <IR> Framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). Furthermore, this report contains the company’s first disclosures relevant to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.