Shareholders' Meeting approves distribution of a special dividend /
Florian Funck elected as new Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart, Germany, May 15, 2019. Today, the Shareholders' Meeting of TAKKT AG approved the payment of a total dividend of EUR 0.85 per share for the fiscal year 2018. In addition to the base dividend of EUR 0.55, a special dividend of EUR 0.30 per share will be distributed. The total payout ratio is 63.3 percent. As already announced, Chairman of the Supervisory Board Stephan Gemkow resigned his mandate at the end of today's Shareholders' Meeting. Thomas Schmidt was elected as new Supervisory Board member, Florian Funck is the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board.


At today's Shareholders' Meeting in Ludwigsburg, among other things, the decision on the profit appropriation, the discharge of the Management and Supervisory Boards, the election of the auditor, the adjustment of the Supervisory Board compensation and amendments to existing profit and loss transfer agreements were put to a vote. All agenda items were approved by a large majority.

There were also changes in the Supervisory Board. Stephan Gemkow will leave the Management Board of the main shareholder Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH on June 30 and, as a consequence, resigned his Supervisory Board mandate to the end of today's Meeting. Gemkow has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board since the beginning of 2013 and has played a key role in the development of TAKKT during his tenure. TAKKT CEO Felix Zimmermann thanked Gemkow for the trusting cooperation in the past years. "Mr. Gemkow has given valuable impetus to help TAKKT move away from the catalog business towards multi-channel marketing and e-commerce."

The Shareholders' Meeting elected Thomas Schmidt, Member of the Management Board of Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, as a new member of the Supervisory Board. At the first meeting right after the Shareholders' Meeting, the Supervisory Board elected Florian Funck as its new Chairman. Funck was CFO of TAKKT AG from 2004 to 2011 and has been a member of the Supervisory Board since the end of 2011.

At the Shareholders' Meeting, Zimmermann reported to the participants on the economic development and strategic topics of the Group in the fiscal year 2018. Sales growth amounted to 5.8 percent. Organically, TAKKT was able to grow at 3.4 percent. At 12.7 percent, the EBITDA margin was slightly below the range of 13 to 14 percent expected at the beginning of the year.

Under the current conditions, TAKKT continues to expect slight organic sales growth and an EBITDA margin in the target corridor of 12 to 16 percent for 2019. "We are watching closely the slowdown of the economic indicators and the further escalating trade conflict between the US and China," said CFO Claude Tomaszewski. TAKKT attaches great importance to achieving the profitability targets and has prepared measures for flexible cost adjustments. If the persistently weak economic indicators become noticeable in the order intake, TAKKT will implement these measures promptly.

 

About TAKKT AG
TAKKT is the leading B2B direct marketing specialist for business equipment in Europe and North America. The Group is represented with its brands in more than 25 countries. The product range of the subsidiaries comprises more than one million products for the areas of plant and warehouse equipment, office furniture, transport packaging, display articles and equipment for the food service industry, hotel market and retailers. The TAKKT Group has over 2,500 employees. The company is listed on the SDAX and Deutsche Börse Prime Standard.

Contacts:
Dr. Christian Warns Tel. +49 (0) 711 3465-8222
Giuseppe Palmieri Tel. +49 (0) 711 3465-8250
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