Despite the decidedly volatile and challenging macroeconomic environment, Haniel looks back on a successful financial year: Revenue from the Haniel Group’s continuing operations was up 18 percent year on year, amounting to EUR 4,223 million. Every portfolio company increased its revenue in 2022. In particular BekaertDeslee, Emma and TAKKT made a positive contribution to the in-crease in operating profit, which was up year on year by 12 percent at EUR 310 million. Operating free cash flow rose by 116 percent to EUR 250 million.
Enkelfähig: Performance through sustainability
Haniel aims to become Europe's leading purpose-driven investor and to this end is building companies for a future worth living as part of its Enkelfähig approach. With a portfolio of commercially successful and sustainable investments, Haniel creates value for generations: "We want to show that sustainable business models are not only profitable, but actually perform better in the long term than non-sustainable business models," says Thomas Schmidt, CEO of Haniel. The portfolio companies are managed on the basis of a common leadership model – the Haniel Operating Way (HOW) – and share a performance-oriented culture.
Milestones achieved in portfolio, leadership and culture
In fiscal 2022, Haniel achieved further milestones in addition to its financial targets:
"We continued to transform our portfolio last year. In addition to expanding our direct investments in clean-tech start-ups and venture capital funds with a sustainability focus, we primarily strengthened the business of portfolio companies through acquisitions," explains Thomas Schmidt.
Growth Capital investments included Aerones, which sells robotic maintenance systems for wind turbines, and 1KOMMA5°, an emerging company for the installation of CO2-neutral energy systems in the residential sector. CWS acquired STAXS Group in the Netherlands, BERNET in Switzerland and GOREX in Germany. BekaertDeslee expanded its North American business by acquiring the Canadian Maxime Group. At Optimar, Haniel transferred shares to the management and employees of the portfolio company. In the future, Optimar will therefore be managed as a financial investment.
In terms of leadership, Haniel has achieved success in implementing its value creation targets: In addition to the good development of the financial performance indicators revenue, EBITA and operating free cash flow, the company achieved continuously rising revenue from enkelfähig solutions: The share of Group revenue increased to 18.5 percent in 2022.
In addition, Haniel has driven the development of a performance-oriented, entrepreneurial, and diverse culture – visible, among other things, in the increase in the proportion of women in the Haniel management team to 50 percent.
For 2023, Haniel's management expects organic revenue growth in all portfolio companies. A slight increase is also expected for the Group's operating profit.
More information can be found in the Haniel Annual Report 2022.
