creased sales by a total of € 54.2 million. The effects were
calculated in each case on the basis of the months to which
the acquired business belonged to the Group. Of this
amount, € 33.0 million were attributable to the acquisition of
Schmid Rhyner AG in Switzerland (ACTEGA division) in the
spring of 2020, a total of € 17.8 million to the acquisitions
of the businesses of Gulf Scientific and Paul N. Gardner,
both in the U.S., in the BYK division, and € 3 million to the
acquisition of the Hubergroup wire enamels business
in India (ELANTAS division). The British company Aluminium
Materials Technologies Ltd., acquired by the ECKART division
in May 2020, increased Group sales by € 0.4 million.
Adjusted for currency and acquisition effects, sales were
4 % below the previous year.
This means that we did not achieve the operating sales growth
in low single-digit percentages forecast at the beginning
of the year for 2020. However, in view of the challenging
economic situation caused by the pandemic, an operating
sales decline of only 4 % reflects the Group’s competitiveness.
In the different quarters of 2020, strong volatility in business
activity was observed. After a very good start in the first
quarter of 2020 – caused in part by stockpiling on the
part of our customers – the measures introduced worldwide
from March to contain the pandemic led to a downturn in
sales in large parts of the manufacturing sector in the second
quarter. From the middle of the year there was a recovery –
first in China, then in the other regions – resulting in an unexpectedly
strong fourth quarter to finish the year. There
were many product segments, particularly in the automotive
Key figures
2019 2020 Δ % Δ % op.¹
in € million
Sales 2,248.9 2,178.2 - 3 - 4
Earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and
amortization (EBITDA) 415.8 426.0 2 4
EBITDA margin 18.5 % 19.6 %
Operating income (EBIT) 262.5 185.7 - 29 - 25
EBIT margin 11.7 % 8.5 %
Earnings before taxes
(EBT) 231.3 142.7 - 38 - 34
EBT margin 10.3 % 6.6 %
Net income (EAT) 169.0 75.1 - 56
EAT margin 7.5 % 3.5 %
¹ Operating deviation, i. e. adjusted for acquisition and divestment as well as exchange-rate
effects. This adjustment also applies to other sections of this management report.
Sales by division
1
4
2
3
14.4 %
21.3 %
46.3 %
18.0 %
in € million 2019 2020 Δ % Δ % op.
1 BYK 1,040.6 1,008.7 - 3 - 4
2 ECKART 356.2 315.2 - 11 - 11
3 ELANTAS 494.5 463.3 - 6 - 5
4 ACTEGA 357.7 391.0 9 3
Total 2,248.9 2,178.2 - 3 - 4
54 Business Development