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Interviews
The rights issue you did place two years ago at a price of
52,00 €, but presently the market pays only a good 40,00
€ for your share.
On the one hand, one cannot view the share price
detached from the entire share market. On the other
hand, we also say, that the situation in the synthetic
rubber market can deteriorate again in the next 12 to
18 months. This is exactly the reason, why we want to
become less cyclical and wish to increase the quality of
the earnings. Thus, we want to get, over the medium
term, to another valuation of the share.
Lanxess did start well into the new business round. But
when lifting the forecast, you have at the same time
warned, that the development is not sustainable. Why?
In spite of the good development, which also continues
during the second quarter, we are standing before great
challenges in the synthetic rubber business. We have
overcapacities and price pressure. We expect, that the
pressure will once more get stronger in the second half
year, because new capacities will come into the market.
Accordingly, the analysts are expecting, that the earnings
in this business will go down somewhat in the second
half of the year. At our businesses the earnings should
however go up further.
About the Person
Sensibleness for Investors
Lax and settled appears Michael Pontzen at his first
interview as CFO of the chemical group Lanxess. Nothing
else, though, had to be expected, as the 46 year old
belongs since the “birth” of Lanxess to the base team
and thus knows the group perfectly well.
A home base game also for the man of numbers, the
professional career of whom always took place in the
financial function of the respective employer - apart
fromthe start of the career, when theMBA started in 1997
as assistant to the managing board at Ferrostahl. After
two years he changed over into the investors relations
department of the then still independent producer of
trucks, MAN. Again, two years later, he started to work for
EADS (today Airbus), where he became head of investor
relations.
When he got an offer into the same position in the city of
Leverkusen at the Lanxess Group, the man, engaged in
his family, could not resist to return to his home regional
area. But the manager, born in the lower Rhine river area,
was especially attracted, by bringing Lanxess, the spin off
of Bayer, and often defamed as the remainder portfolio,
to the stock exchange. As head of Investor Relations,
Pontzen was co-writing the equity story, which until today
is based on transparency. After that in 2008 he became
head of Corporate Finance. A year later he also became
head of Risk and Cash Management.
The interview was made by Annette Becker,
Börsen-Zeitung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany,
June 11, 2016.
Responsible for English translation: GEFIU,
the Association of Chief Financial Officers
Germany, translator: Helmut Schnabel
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