Strategy

Finance Strategy

We aim to make our Group the investment of choice. Expressed in figures, we are aiming for growth in our operating divisions that exceeds the annual growth of their respective market by one or two percentage point.

In March 2010, the Supervisory Board adopted a new finance strategy for the Group.

In addition to the interests of our shareholders, the new strategy also takes lender requirements into account. The goal is for the Group to maintain its financial flexibility and low cost of capital by ensuring a high degree of continuity and predictability for investors.

A key component of this strategy is the determination of a target capital structure to achieve our target rating of BBB+. This target rating will be controlled via a dynamic performance metric called "funds from operations to debt" (FFO to debt), calculated on a rolling 12-month basis.

The strategy also includes a sustained dividend policy and clear priorities for the use of available liquidity. It will initially be used to make attractive investments as well as to partially fund our pension liabilities. Once this has been achieved, we would initially aim for a rating improvement to A− before using available liquidity for additional dividend payments or share repurchases.