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NORMA Group raises dividend to EUR 1.10 per share

Maintal/Frankfurt/Main, Germany, May 21, 2019 – The shareholders of NORMA Group, a global market leader in engineered joining technology, have approved a dividend of EUR 1.10 per share for fiscal year 2018 (2017: EUR 1.05) by a large majority. This was the result of today’s Annual General Meeting in Frankfurt/Main. Together with previous postal votes more than 50 shareholders attending represented around 68 percent of the share capital.

The total dividend amount is around EUR 35.0 million (2017: EUR 33.5 million). This equates to a distribution ratio of 30.5 percent of the adjusted consolidated net profit for fiscal year 2018 of EUR 114.8 million (2017: 31.9 percent; EUR 105.0 million). NORMA Group has thus increased its dividend for the seventh year in a row since its IPO in 2011 and kept to its sustainable dividend policy. Accordingly, the payout ratio should amount to 30 to 35 percent of its adjusted consolidated net profit.

Mark Wilhelms new member of the Supervisory Board

Mark Wilhelms was elected to the Supervisory Board by resolution of the Annual General Meeting. “We are delighted that in Mark Wilhelms we have been able to gain an excellently qualified member for the Supervisory Board of NORMA Group,” said Lars Magnus Berg, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of NORMA Group. As a process and industrial engineer, Mark Wilhelms has many years of experience with multinational industrial companies. He has been a member of management of Stabilus SA since 2009.

Growth strategy supports business development in 2018

In fiscal year 2018, NORMA Group increased its Group sales by 6.6 percent year-on-year to EUR 1,084.1 million (2017: EUR 1,017.1 million). Organic sales rose strongly by 7.7 percent. The acquisitions of Fengfan in China, Kimplas in India and Statek in Germany contributed around EUR 16.5 million to growth. “In fiscal year 2018, we consistently pursued the implementation of our strategy,” said Bernd Kleinhens, CEO of NORMA Group. “Our Vision 2025 is based on three pillars: firstly, consistent localization along the value chain in order to further increase our market share in the regions. Secondly, the diversification of our product portfolio, especially with a view toward strong future markets such as water management and electromobility. And thirdly, complementing our organic growth with targeted acquisitions.”

NORMA Group sustainably positioned

NORMA Group published its 2018 Corporate Responsibility Report in March 2019. In its fifth sustainability report, NORMA Group provides information on progress in the area of sustainability and non-financial indicators. These include employee and environmental indicators as well as indicators relating to human rights and sustainability in the supply chain. In order to continuously and systematically reduce the impact of its business activities on the environment, NORMA Group analyzes water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and waste generation along the entire value chain. The company is not only committed to corporate responsibility, but also aligns its product range accordingly.

Focus on water management and electromobility

“In view of the increasing scarcity of water worldwide, there is a growing need for solutions for efficient water supply and safe wastewater disposal. We address this trend by continuously expanding and improving our product portfolio in the area of water management. In the past fiscal year, water management products already accounted for 17 percent of our annual sales,” explained Bernd Kleinhens, CEO of NORMA Group. “In addition, we already have a number of key products in our portfolio to support the future trend towards electromobility. These include thermal management systems for battery-powered electric vehicles. In order to be well positioned in these growth markets, we are constantly expanding our technological leadership and innovative strength. We will continue to invest 5 percent of our sales from the Engineered Joining Technology division in research and development every year in the future.”

The voting results and further information on the Annual General Meeting can be found on the Investor Relations website: https://investoren.normagroup.com/en/agm. Additional information on the company is available at https://www.normagroup.com. More press photos are available from our platform https://www.normagroup.com/images.