KWS’ Annual Shareholders’ Meeting adopts dividend increase

• Dividend rises to €0.67 per share
• Guidance for the 2019/2020 fiscal year confirmed

The shareholders of KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE0007074007) voted by clear majorities in favor of the proposals made by the Executive and Supervisory Boards on all items on the agenda at today’s Annual Shareholders’ Meeting in Einbeck. A dividend of €0.67 (previous year: €0.64) per share will be paid out for fiscal 2018/2019. The guidance for the current fiscal year 2019/2020 has been confirmed without any changes.

The Executive Board described the company’s performance in the past fiscal year 2018/2019 to the shareholders in attendance. The KWS Group achieved a 4.2% increase in net sales to €1.11 billion. Operating income (EBIT) rose by around 13% to €150.0 million, while earnings per share improved by approximately 4% to €3.15.

In view of the positive earnings performance, the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting endorsed the proposal by the Executive and Supervisory Boards and adopted a resolution to pay out a higher dividend of €0.67 (0.64). €22.1 (21.1) million will thus be distributed to the shareholders of KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA. That corresponds to a dividend payout ratio of 21.3% (21.2%), once again in line with the KWS Group’s earnings-oriented policy of paying a dividend of 20% to 25% of its net income.

Overall guidance confirmed for the fiscal year 2019/2020

The Executive Board also dealt with the company’s current business performance (in the first quarter of 2019/2020) in its comments and confirmed the guidance for the year as a whole. The Executive Board still expects the KWS Group to grow its net sales sharply by 8% to 12%. Acquisition of the vegetable seed business of Pop Vriend Seeds and growing corn seed business should make major contributions to that. An EBIT margin of between 11% and 13% is still anticipated.

More information about the shareholders' meeting is available online https://www.kws.com/corp/en/company/investor-relations/