Ladies and gentlemen, as chairman of the supervisory board, I would like to open this year's annual general meeting of Evonik, and take the chair of the meeting pursuant to Section 19 of our company's articles of association. I would like to welcome, also on behalf of the other members of the supervisory board and executive boards, our shareholders, the shareholder representatives, the ladies and gentlemen of the media, as well as our guests. Dear shareholders and shareholder representatives, with the consent of the supervisory board, the executive board decided to hold this year's annual general meeting in a virtual format. This decision was made on the basis of the new Section 118a of the German Stock Corporation Act, as amended in 2022.
With the Section 118a, the lawmaker provided a new format for the organization of virtual annual general meetings. This format enables the shareholders to exercise their rights by using the online service in a similar way as at an in-person meeting, without having to travel to the venue of the annual general meeting. Thank you very much for attending today's annual general meeting. My words of welcome also go to our notary, Dr. Begemann, sitting to my right, from your perspective, who is notarizing our general meeting today. The members of the executive and supervisory boards are in attendance, except for Mrs. Keghart and Mrs. Alexandra Krieger. The company's voting right supervisory board is also shown here on the picture right now. The company's voting right representatives are also in attendance here on site.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us start with the formalities and standard housekeeping items. I've made sure that the annual general meeting has been duly convened, and that all the relevant publication and communication requirements have been met. Our notary, Dr Begemann, is in possession of a copy of the publication of the invitation in the Federal Gazette on the 17th of April, 2023, which will form part of the notarized minutes. No requests have been received for amendments to the agenda that would have been subject to disclosure requirements. On item two, one shareholder submitted a counter motion, which has been published, in accordance with the relevant requirements, on the company's website, with all the required information, and which, in this way, was immediately made available to the shareholders.
At this general meeting, you can exercise your right to speak and obtain information in the same way as at an in-person meeting. The difference to an in-person general meeting is that you exercise these rights in a virtual format by way of audio and video communication through the online service. This means that spoken contributions have to be made by video communication. This also goes for the right to information, including the right to ask questions. Any other way of submitting questions, other than by way of video communication through electronic or other communication channels, is not provided for, and therefore not possible. Since this general meeting has been opened, you have been able to register your request to speak through the respective function in the online service. You can also specify there which topic you would like to address.
Please note that you have to be logged in to the online service for shareholders, with the shareholder number with which you would like to register your request to speak. As an authorized person for a shareholder, you have received your own access data for the online service, with which you should kindly log in to the online service, and which enable you to exercise your rights by way of video communication. Following registration of your request to speak through the online service, I, as chairman of the meeting, will in due course, announce each individual speaker by name, and will ask them to enter the virtual waiting room. A pop-up window in the online service for entering the virtual waiting room will then be displayed to every speaker. With your confirmation, you can enter the virtual waiting room, where the so-called onboarding will take place for your respective contribution.
The virtual waiting room, thus, serves to check the proper functioning of your audio and video connection in preparation of your live contribution. Once you have entered the virtual waiting room, you will be met by our technical staff, who will check the audio and video quality with you. Please stay in the virtual waiting room until our technical staff gets in touch with you. Following the announcement of each cluster of speakers, I will take a short break to enable the announced persons to enter the virtual waiting room, and to carry out the functional test. Following the successful functional test, I, as chairman of the meeting, will call you up by name and give you the floor. Afterwards, you will go live and join the general meeting and can start with your contribution.
All the other shareholders and shareholder representatives can then follow your contribution in audio and video mode in the online service. One more comment on the proper technical function of your audio and video connection. Only, and I'm emphasizing this, only if your audio and video connection works properly, will I, as chairman of the meeting, call you up and give you the floor. This means that the proper technical functioning of your audio and video connection is an indispensable precondition for you joining the general meeting live by video communication. Should the video communication no longer work properly during your contribution, I, as chairman of the meeting, will stop your contribution. I'm already asking you now, for such a case, to then fix the problem and to ask for the floor again, if you so wish.
In this context, I recommend that you read the information leaflet on video communication. It can be downloaded and viewed on the homepage at www.evonik.de/hauptversammlung. It provides useful information for the optimum functioning of video communication, especially on the appropriate hardware of your terminal device, internet connection, and on the correct position of your camera for your live contribution. If you'd like to submit a motion or nomination, I am asking you to submit your motion or nomination also by way of video communication, as just described and under the aforementioned conditions, through the online service. You can only submit your motion by way of a live contribution. You can also register your motion through the function motion and Section 131, subsection 4 of the German Stock Corporation Act in the online service, and specify the subject of your motion.
In this manner, I can decide whether I should give you the floor with exceptional priority, or even after I might already have closed the list of speakers. One further comment, all contributions and questions have to be made in German. Should you speak in another language or change to another language while you are speaking, I, as chairman of the meeting, will stop your contribution, unfortunately. As usual, we want to combine the discussion on all the agenda items in a single general debate. In this format, every speaker can speak and can ask questions on all the agenda items. A discussion on potential procedural motions of shareholders is also possible as part of the general debate, unless an earlier discussion is required for once.
In order to allow for a timely and efficient proceeding of the general meeting, I am asking all the speakers to focus their statements on the subjects of the agenda, to be as concise as possible, and to only speak for a reasonable length of time. Experience has shown that 10 minutes are typically enough for an appropriate contribution. In case you would like to withdraw your request to speak or your motion, I'm asking you, in the best interest of all the shareholders, to use the respective function in the online service. If required, I will impose a reasonable time limit on the right to speak and ask questions in the best interest of all attending shareholders or their representatives.
In particular, I reserve the right to close early the list of speakers, and possibly also the general debate, should this appear to be necessary to conclude the general meeting in a timely manner. The entire general meeting will be streamed live through our online service for all shareholders and their representatives. The first part of the general meeting, up to the end of the report by Mr. Kullmann on the company's annual financial statements and development, will also be streamed live on the internet and can be retrieved there later on. Other than that, this annual general meeting will not be recorded in audio or video format by the management. Please bear with us that above and beyond this, the general meeting proceedings, that is, in particular, the general debate, will not be broadcast on the internet.
Shareholders or their representatives following the general meeting on the internet should remember that they have to log in to the online service to be able to follow the entire meeting, and hence, the general debate. The executive board will use the support of stenographers to take down questions asked and their answers. To this end, the stenographers will use temporary audio recordings as a working tool, which will then be deleted again.
... I would kindly ask you to abstain from video and sound recordings. It is in the interest of an undisturbed course of the AGM that I also ask you to make sure that during the onboarding in the virtual waiting room and during your contributions, to mute mobile telephones and to not post them directly on your laptops or personal computers. Ladies and gentlemen, all important pieces of information as far as the course of the AGM is concerned, including the possibility of voting on and objecting to resolutions during this virtual AGM, are included in the invitation you'll find on the website of the company under www.evonik.de/hauptversammlung, as well as in the online service.
If you have already submitted your votes prior to the virtual AGM, if you have done so yourself or via a proxy by way of postal vote in the traditional way or via the online service, or if you have already authorized a proxy of the company or another representative of the shareholders or shareholders association and have given authority and instructions, you do not need to do anything else. Your yes or no votes or abstentions can be submitted by postal vote electronically via the password-protected online service, and you can do so also during the virtual AGM. You can change them or cancel them, but only until the point in time I would have defined as the chair of this meeting. I will point out what the endpoint is in due time.
For the postal vote, you have to register the votes in the online form, in the online service, and you have to submit these votes or cancellations by way of electronic submission. If you want to exercise voting rights for several shareholder numbers, please make sure that you have registered all shareholders' numbers in the online service, and that you have to exercise your voting rights for all of these numbers. Proceed in the same way if, during the AGM, you want to give proxy or instructions to the proxies of the company or to any other agent or representative of a shareholders association, if you want to change something or cancel your votes. The proxies of the company will only exercise your voting right if you have given them clear instruction. Only instructions concerning the resolutions of the administration or countermotions or election proposals are possible here.
The proxies of the company will not accept any instructions for shareholder rights to be perceived for others concerning questions, motions, or countermotions. In due time, prior to the vote, I will once again point out what the options of exercising the voting rights are. Nevertheless, I would like to ask you to make use of the options I mentioned in due time, as in the live stream, despite of all precautionary measures, there can be some time delays. Until the end of the AGM, you can also use the online service in order to object to the resolutions of the AGM, so that they can be taken to the minutes. I would like to point out that you can make use, and should make use, of this opportunity in due time, since, as I mentioned beforehand, there could be time delays in a live stream transmission.
In the same way, you can also file complaints in the online service in the context of your right to information. If you do not want to attend to the AGM until the very end, I would like to ask you to log out from the online service, including all your shareholders' numbers. This is the way how we can update the attendance, and you can also counteract the risk of any abuse of your access data. Let us now start with a discussion of the agenda, and I would like to start by calling item one on the agenda: documents presented to the AGM according to Section 176, subsection 1, sentence 1 of the Stock Corporation Law. These are the following: The approved annual accounts of Evonik Industries AG as of 31st of December, 2022. The approved consolidated accounts as of 31st of December, 2022.
The combined management and group management report for Evonik Group and Evonik Industries AG, including the explanatory report of the management board concerning information according to sections 218, 9A, and 315A of the Commercial Code. The report by the supervisory board of Evonik Industries AG, as well as the proposal made by the management board of Evonik Industries AG for the appropriation of profits. The consolidated financial statement with the unqualified auditor certificate is included in the financial report for 2022 as of Page 123. The combined management report is included in Page 14, and the report by the supervisory board can be read on Page 98.
All aforementioned documents have been accessible via the Internet site of Evonik Industries AG since the invitation to the AGM. The Supervisory Board has examined the annual accounts and the combined management report of Evonik Industries AG and the group, as well as the consolidated financial statement, and has approved them in its meeting on 1st March 2023, which means that the financial statement is thus established. In this very meeting, too, the Supervisory Board examined the Management Board's proposal as far as appropriation of profits is concerned, and has approved this proposal. The Supervisory Board in this meeting has also dealt with the Management Board report on relationships with affiliated companies in the business year 2022. This report has been audited by the auditor and been given an unqualified auditor's certificate. The Supervisory Board has not raised any objections to the report, and also not to the auditor's results.
As already mentioned, the report by the Supervisory Board is concluded in the financial report as of Page 98. All the details of the activities of the Supervisory Board are explained there, I would like to restrict to the following information. In the past business year, the Supervisory Board has, with great diligence, exercised all the jobs on tasks according to law and statutes. Especially, it monitored the Management Board with due diligence and continuously, and advised and supported the Management Board in strategic further development issues of the company. The Management Board provided us with all necessary information in due time and on a regular basis. As a chairman of the Supervisory Board, I was also continuously informed in between official meeting dates and was in permanent dialogue with the chairperson of the Management Board.
A considerable part of the Supervisory Board's activity takes place in the committees. In these committees, intensive subject-related discussions are being heard with the Management Board, and technical questions are being decided. Decisions of the Supervisory Board are being prepared here. The chairpersons of the committees report on the work of the committees on a regular basis to the Supervisory Board, which means that there is a close cooperation and an adequate flow of information we can guarantee at any point in time. Together with the Management Board, the Supervisory Board has prepared the declaration on corporate governance, which includes all the relevant details. This declaration on corporate governance is included in the financial report as of Page 106. The corporate governance of Evonik Industries AG, which has top priority on the agenda of Management Board and Supervisory Board, is presented in all its details.
Special focal points as far as the activity of the Supervisory Board and its committees are concerned in 2022, were the course of business, the situation and development of the company, including corporate planning. The Supervisory Board particularly looked into the construction operation of a lipid production plant in the United States and the construction of a PA12 production line in Germany. Furthermore, the Supervisory Board looked into the capacity enhancement of methionine integrated facilities in Singapore, the network strategy, and the optimization of precipitated silica in the United States. The impact of the Ukraine war, with all the consequences, such as the Russia business of Evonik and the gas supply in Europe, have kept the Supervisory Board very busy in the past business year.
These topics, as well as the consequences of the Corona pandemic, have led to a situation where the Supervisory Board corrected the original target values of long and short-term remuneration of the Management Board, as the underlying conditions of the original targets were no longer existing. In the Management Board, with effect of 1st April 2023, there's been a change in the remit of finance. Mrs. Ute Wolf resigned from their office as member of the Management Board, with effect of 31st of March 2023. The Supervisory Board has approved the premature termination of Mrs. Wolf's nomination, has done so in its meeting on the 7th December 2022, upon recommendation of the Executive Committee. On the other hand, has also, upon recommendation of the Executive Committee, decided to appoint Mrs.
Maike Schuh as member of the Management Board, responsible for finance with effect of 1st April 2023. We are very happy that we could win Mrs. Schuh as a successor. She has been active within Evonik for eight years now and brings along well-proved expertise in controlling and accounting, as well as precious experience in the operating business at home and abroad, especially when she was Head of Division Performance Materials. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, certainly on behalf of all shareholders, I would like to thank Mrs. Wolf cordially for their merits, for the further development of the Evonik Group. Since 2013, Mrs. Wolf had been member of the Management Board, before that, for seven years, she was in charge of finance. She has actively supported the IPO and put her stamp on the company. During Mrs.
Ute Wolf's term of office, there were four takeovers in Northern America, which were successfully integrated. She is a renowned expert and is also active in external committees, as, for example, in the Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the DRSC, the German Accounting Standards Committee. After almost 10 years in the management board of Evonik, she would like to focus on activities in supervisory boards and advisory boards in the future. Mrs. Wolff, we wish you all the best for the future. In the past business year, there were three personnel changes also on the employee side of the supervisory board. Mr. Jens Barnhusen resigned from his office with effect of 31st of March 2022, so he's no longer a member of the supervisory board. His successor is Mr. Gerd Schlengermann.
In the framework of the employees election to the Supervisory Board in 2018, he had been appointed substitute member according to Co-Determination law. Mrs. Birgit Biermann and Mr. Frank Löllgen also resigned from their office at the end of the ordinary general meeting on 25th of May 2022. A successor for Mrs. Biermann, the District Court Essen, has appointed Mrs. Alexandra Krieger, and as a successor to Mr. Löllgen, they appointed Mr. Harald Sikorski, both with effect of 26th of May 2022, and they are now the substitute or the replacement member of the Supervisory Board. Due to the personal changes in the Supervisory Board, there were also personnel changes in the committees. Mr. Schlengermann and Mrs. Krieger are successors to Mr. Barnhusen and Mrs. Biermann in the Audit Committee. The Supervisory Board elected Mrs.
Krieger with effect of 26th May 2022, also as a Vice Chairperson in the Audit Committee. The Supervisory Board elected Mr. Sikorski with effect of 26th May 2022, as successor to Mr. Löllgen as member and Deputy Chairman of the Innovation and Research Committee. With the effect of this point in time, the Supervisory Board elected Mr. Sikorski as successor to Mr. Löllgen to the Finance and Investment Committee. On 20th of February this year, our long-standing colleague in the Supervisory Board, Mr. Ulrich Weber, passed away after a long-term illness in the age of 72 years. He was a member of the Supervisory Board and had been so since 2016. As a member of the first Management Board and Labor Director of Evonik, Mr. Weber actually put an important stamp on the company.
It's thanks to him that all staff members of the predecessor companies, with all the different cultures, were combined under the roof of the new Evonik. His great commitment, intelligence and vision, he was always able to do justice to the requirements of the group and the interests of the employees, also in times of deep structural changes. We will always thank him for this. Now, with the end of today's AGM, the term of office of all supervisory board members will come to an end as well, and this is why we have as an item on the agenda of today's AGM, the new election of all shareholders representatives of the supervisory board. Mrs. Professor Barbara Grunewald and Dr. Volker Trautz will no longer be available for a further term of office on the board.
Dear Professor Grunewald, for you, too, it will be the last AGM of Evonik Industries AG today, in which you're going to participate as an active supervisory board member. I would like to cordially thank you for your tremendous and long-standing commitment. We all know good lawyers are hard to find, be it in court, at the university, or in industry, even with a specialty chemist such as Evonik. Dear Professor Grunewald, you're an excellent representative of your profession, who studied in Bielefeld, Tübingen, and London. After your doctorate and habilitation, you took over chairs at the universities of Mannheim and Mainz, before you followed the call to Cologne University in 1992. 1999, excuse me. The Chair for Civil Law and Commercial Law at Cologne Universities was held by you until your retirement in 2019.
You are considered to be a personality with your own style and a good sense of Rhineland humor. This is no surprise, because you come from Bonn. I think a good sense of humor makes things run smoother, especially also when it comes to legal issues. Also, in the audit committee, your legal expertise was in high demand, especially when it was about special knowledge about the application of accounting standards and internal control processes. Now, the fact that life offers more than only academia is something you have come to appreciate since you have retired. Now, with the end of today's AGM, you will no longer have appointments with Evonik, which means you can now start to enjoy the nice things of life even more. I wish you all the best. Dear Dr.
Trautz, with the end of today's AGM, you also will resign from your term of office on the Supervisory Board in Evonik Industries. This is a cut for you, for the Supervisory Board, and of course, for Evonik as a whole. Since December 2007, you have been member of this board. It's almost as long as this group has existed. I would like to thank you for your tremendous commitment, your excellent and trust-based cooperation with us. Dear Dr. Trautz, you have contributed to setting the course for Evonik right from the outset. You constructively supported strategic decisions of the group on its way to become one of the leading specialty chemists.
As a member in the executive committee, in the nomination committee, in the mediation committee, as well as in the innovation and research committee, you have always contributed your expertise and helped to set the right course. What comes to my mind, for example, is the successful IPO, the focusing on specialty chemistry, and many important investment projects, up to the construction of the new lipid production plant at Tippecanoe in the U.S. For you, too, there had been a life before Evonik, as we can see in your CV. You studied chemistry at the Stuttgart University, where you got your doctorate before you joined BASF in Ludwigshafen. In 1995, you became member of the management board. After five years, there was another leap in your career ladder.
You became the CEO of Basell Polyolefins, and this leading position is something you had even after the merger with Lyondell until your retirement in 2009. Now, this brief retrospective view makes clear how tremendous your expertise is. The supervisory board and I personally benefited from your expertise, from your critically constructive contributions. Evonik owes you a lot. The strategic alignment of the business you supported so much, a business that promises sustainable and profitable growth, is one of the good examples. Dear Dr. Trautz, I wish you all the best for your future, and stay safe and healthy. The supervisory board proposes to today's AGM to replace Professor Grunewald and Dr. Trautz and Mr. Weber, and newly elect to the supervisory board the gentleman, Dr. Cornelius Baur, Dr. Christian Kohlpaintner, and Mrs. Dr.
Ariane Reinhart, to re-elect the other shareholders' representatives who are still in office. The election is valid until the end of the AGM, which is going to ratify the acts for the fourth business year after beginning of the term of office. The business year during which the term of office starts is not included. Very probably, the term of office of the candidates proposed today will end with the AGM of 2028. The three persons who are proposed for election are present today. I would like to give them the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves. Dear Dr. Baur, I would like to give you the floor first, then after you, Dr. Kohlpaintner, and after that, dear Dr. Reinhart. Maybe this is not the usual way, but it's in alphabetical order. Dr. Baur, you have the floor.
Thank you very much. Good morning, Chairman, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank the Supervisory Board for nominating me at today's General Meeting as new representative of the shareholders. I am happy about the opportunity to briefly introduce myself to you. I am Cornelius Baur. I am 61 years old. Following my training at Siemens and university studies of business administration with a PhD at Ludwig Maximilian University, LMU for short, in Munich, I started my professional career as consultant with McKinsey in 1990. I worked for McKinsey at home and abroad for over 30 years and held various management positions. As a partner, member of the Shareholder Committee, Managing Partner for Germany and Austria, as well as a member of the Global Executive Board of McKinsey, I concerned myself for many years with the continuous improvement of operations in listed companies.
In this context, I found out that Europe needs even more world-class corporate champions. There are already quite a few around, and Evonik ranks among them. This has been demonstrated, for example, by the latest developments in the field of biotechnology as far as the development of Corona vaccines is concerned, to which Evonik contributed significantly with its lipids. Successful business performance and entrepreneurship nowadays relies more than ever on researchers in laboratories who develop products from their ideas to create benefit and added value for mankind. The chemical industry is right at the center of this process because the green transformation cannot be accomplished without chemicals. Living up to these standards and fostering even more innovations requires not only partnerships between universities and companies, but also the promotion of venture capital and startups, as well as fast and unbureaucratic consenting procedures.
Evonik has already established numerous first-rate cooperative ventures with universities and is also well positioned with the Evonik Venture Capital GmbH to create strategic value and growth opportunities for the group. I am happy to contribute my economic expertise and business administration knowledge acquired during my university studies and professional career to the supervisory board in order to support and advise Evonik. I'm looking forward very much to successful and trusting cooperation with you and would like to thank you very much for your attention. Thank you.
Yes, thank you very much, Dr. Baur. Without chemistry, the green transformation cannot be mastered, and I think this is nicely fitting in with our company. Dr. Kohlpaintner, you have the floor.
Yeah. Good morning. A very good morning, dear chairman, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I would like to thank the supervisory board members of Evonik too, that you proposed me as a shareholder's representatives to today's AGM. With pleasure, I would like to briefly introduce myself. My name is Christian Kohlpaintner, and I'm 59 years of age. I studied at the Technical University of Munich. I studied chemistry, and after that also did my doctorate at Munich University. In 1993, I started my professional career with Hoechst AG. For Hoechst AG, I held various management position abroad and at home in the areas research and development.
Further career steps were with Celanese AG, with management positions in the areas production and technology, marketing and sales, as well as innovation in Germany and the United States. After a total of 10 years with Hoechst AG and Celanese, in 2003, I became member, and later on, the spokesperson of the management of the Chemische Fabrik Budenheim KG. In 2009, I became the member of the group management board of Clariant AG, this is where I was responsible for growth business and the region Asia, and in part, I was basically headquartered or based in China. Since the year 2020, I've been the CEO of Brenntag SE here in Essen. Ladies and gentlemen, I have spent more than 30 years of my professional life in the chemical industry, and I love this industry every day anew.
Chemistry is indispensable for modern life, and we are all using chemical products on a day-to-day basis. Evonik is using its innovation power in order to offer resource-efficient solutions. Let me underline that. The home of specialty chemistry is still Europe, even though competitive pressure for chemical companies is steadily increasing, also for Evonik, as it were. They have the right response: innovation, more sustainability, and enhanced specialization. This is good, and this is the right way, because changing market conditions require varying answers. My chemical knowledge I acquired during my studies and my doctorate, and also the experience I have in my various careers in the chemical industry are attributes I would like to contribute to the supervisory board of Evonik. Thank you very much for your attention.
We thank you, Dr. Kohlpaintner. Chemistry is indispensable for modern life, I quote you.
This is once again nicely fitting with our company. Dear Dr. Reinhart, you have the floor.
Dear Chairman, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very glad that the Supervisory Board proposed me as a new shareholders' representatives to the AGM. I would like to briefly introduce myself. My name is Ariane Reinhart. I'm 53 years of age. After studies of law and doctorate at the University of Hamburg and a first station in the International Labour Organization in Geneva, I was with the Volkswagen Group for 15 years. In the group, I held various management positions at home and abroad. Since 2014, I've been member of the Management Board and Labor Director with Continental, and I'm responsible for areas such as sustainable sustainability and human relations.
I'm also active in the management board of the Chemical Industries Employers Association, BAVC, and I also have an active participation in the Government Commission of the German Corporate Governance Code. Evonik is a very exciting company for me because I think they have excellently mastered the transformation process so far. World and the world economy is at a turning point at the moment. This does not only include societal and labor market challenges, but especially the transformation towards a sustainable economy. Sustainable business is business for the future. Evonik is ideally positioned for this, especially with the Next Generation Solutions as part of the sustainability strategy, Evonik has set itself a rather ambitious goal. This is necessary in times today, and it deserves our recognition.
I would like to support Evonik on its further path to a pure specialty chemicals provider and would like to bring in my international experience in corporate governance, HR, and social matters, as well as topics concerning sustainability. Thank you very much for your attention and for your support.
We thank you, dear Dr. Reinhart, so much on the introduction of the three new candidates for the supervisory board of Evonik. Ladies and gentlemen, further details on the candidates that have been proposed today for election to the supervisory board are included in the CVs as well. CVs, which you will find in the invitation document on the website of Evonik Industries AG. Ladies and gentlemen, the legal regulation on minimum quota obligates Evonik AG to ensure that the supervisory board is composed of a minimum of 30% of women and 30% of men.
In its current composition, the supervisory board fulfills the legal requirement. The imminent vote of the proposed candidates will also maintain the required quota in the supervisory board, and further details and information on this are included in the invitation on Page six. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now come to the management report, the financial statement, and the management report. The management report with the report has been published since the 25th of May 2023, under the well-known website of Evonik, and has been accessible in the online service. For the gute Gute, I would like to give the indication that we will listen to the management board's report.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, dear guests, a warm welcome to this year's annual shareholders meeting. When I addressed you last year, we were both proud and, on the other hand, very troubled. We had successfully weathered the pandemic, and Evonik had made its contribution to that. We had demonstrated that Evonik is robust and resilient. Our business had started well into 2022, in fact, better than expected. However, our optimism was overshadowed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It soon became clear that this would have serious implications, not only for the people in the affected areas, but also for the development of the global economy and thus for Evonik. It confronted us with new challenges on a previously unknown scale, and now, a year later, there is no sign of the war ending or of a stable post-war peace.
In Germany and worldwide, we have to live with greater uncertainty than in previous years. This situation will continue to affect us for a long time to come. There are two ways of dealing with this. Either we can get nervous and react hastily, or we can believe in our own strengths, thoughtfully overcome the obstacles before us, and prepare ourselves with foresight for a better future. Ladies and gentlemen, for us at Evonik, moving forward is the only option because we can see that only continuous change can make Evonik stronger and hence more successful. That is what I will show you today with pleasure. Let us start with the virtual format of today's general meeting. With the consent of the supervisory board, we decided to hold today's meeting in a virtual format.
The new format, which the lawmakers have made available to us for the first time this year, actually gives virtual shareholders' meetings the same status as in-person meetings. You, our shareholders, have the right to speak, to obtain information and ask questions in real time, in a live mode at today's meeting. We are looking forward to the dialogue and the exchange with you. At the same time, we would like to assure you that today's virtual format does not mean that we have decided against the familiar in-person format in the Grugahalle in Essen, which is familiar to you. Like many other well-known companies, we are using the format this year as a learning process and will analyze the AGM season very carefully to assess the pros and cons of this format. No doubt, you have also noticed another change already.
Today, I am pleased to introduce you to our new CFO, Maike Schuh. In addition to her proven expertise in financial controlling, she has valuable experience of the operating business, both in Germany and abroad. She will be using this expertise and experience to take forward our finance function. Developing this forward means to make Evonik better, and therefore, dear Maike, I'd like to say to you, warm welcome, great to have you. We are looking forward to working with you. This will make Evonik even better in the future. Let us now turn to our challenges and changes in our business. The geopolitical tensions confronted us with many challenges. We had to overcome supply bottlenecks. There was no more gas from Russia. All of a sudden, our raw material costs rose sharply.
At the end of the year, demand plummeted because our customers' warehouses were full, and the hopes of an upturn in China did not materialize. Nevertheless, thanks to our timely preparations, we were able to respond swiftly. We largely overcame these new challenges, to a large degree, actually. Despite all the hindrances, we delivered as far as our performance is concerned. This was due to the tremendous work of our committed employees. Our supply chain specialists made sure our customers got what they needed. Our hedging strategy for the procurement of energy helped us cushion the sharp rise in prices, and that helped us achieve our financial and economic targets. We grew sales 24% to EUR 18.5 billion last year. Although the increase was partly due to high inflation, it also reflects Evonik's market strength in its specialty businesses.
Despite a drop in volumes sold, we managed to offset the, at times, sharp rise in variable costs by raising prices. Adjusted EBITDA improved by 4% to EUR 2.5 billion, the highest level actually for 10 years. Although the second half of the year was significantly weaker, we achieved the lower end of the outlook range announced already in March. Our free cash flow was EUR 785 million. Adjusted net income for the group rose 7% to EUR 1.05 billion. Therefore, Evonik achieved adjusted earnings last year per share of EUR 2.26 in 2022. As you can see, Evonik held its own well in truly challenging market conditions. These uncertainties have strengthened our resolve to consistently pursue Evonik's strategic development on a continuous basis.
Ladies and gentlemen, a year ago, I presented the realignment and evolution of our strategy to you. In a nutshell, the aim is to integrate sustainability even more systematically into all the elements of our corporate strategy. That is portfolio management, innovation, and our corporate culture. We are investing specifically in green growth and are making sustainability a central innovation driver. Through its green transformation, Evonik is positioning itself well for the future and can continue to strengthen its leading market positions. Our product portfolio is becoming more sustainable. In production, we are saving energy and are significantly reducing CO2 emissions. This is the future. This is next generation Evonik. This is the future of Evonik. Dear shareholders, allow me now to give you some examples that show how we are putting our strategy into practice. By way of these examples, I would like to present the highlights.
One example is energy supply, for instance. Continued operation of our coal-fired power plant in Marl was an emergency measure to make us independent of Russian gas in record time. Yes, it's correct to say that we paid a high price for that, not just in monetary terms, but also through a higher short-term carbon footprint. Nonetheless, that was the right response in the short term. However, we have not lost sight of our long-term goal of driving forward our green transformation. Recently, we signed two agreements for many years with the utility company EnBW for the long-term supply of green electricity. They guarantee us 150 MW of wind power from the North Sea. From 2026, renewable energies will meet a third of our electricity requirements in Europe. This, ladies and gentlemen, is only the first step. It's only the beginning.
We are working on similar agreements in Asia and North America. From 2030, that is our aim, all of Evonik's purchased electricity will come from renewable sources. In this way, we are making Evonik independent of fossil fuels, and on the other hand, we are placing our energy costs on a more secure and a better basis. Neither actually, have we lost sight of the restructuring of our portfolio. Our focus is quite clear: specialty chemicals and sustainable solutions will be the highlight of our course into the future. That includes withdrawing from businesses that no longer fit in with Evonik. Last year, we sold the TAA derivatives business in Marl, in Germany, and the betaines business in the USA. The portfolio changes we are tackling this year are even more extensive. The planned divestment of the Performance Materials division.
We completed the first step at the beginning of April with the sale of our site at Lülsdorf, near Cologne. Next in line are the superabsorbents business and C4 chemicals. The realignment of our portfolio also includes adapting business models when the key financials no longer meet our targets. We will therefore, ladies and gentlemen, we will therefore be placing our animal nutrition business, especially methionine distribution, on a more efficient basis in the future. We are already the world's biggest supplier. Now we want to become the most competitive again. We want to become the cost leader again. Ladies and gentlemen, the motto of our portfolio transformation is: we are concentrating on businesses with high growth rates and above average profit margins. We are achieving this through the selective process of acquisitions and divestments, and through organic growth.
With innovations and investments that steadily increase the proportion of products and solutions with superior sustainability benefits, our Next Generation Solutions. Bio-based rhamnolipids are good examples of such products that are already creating high demand. Evonik is the first company, actually, in the world, that has managed to develop novel surfactants that are completely biodegradable. They are used as environment-friendly ingredients for shower gels and cleaning agents, and that is also helping our partner, Unilever, decarbonize its products without compromising on their performance. The dynamic development of these and similar products highlights their high value. Last year, the proportion of group sales generated with our Next Generation products increased from 37%- 43% last year. By 2030, it should exceed 50%. That is our target. Ladies and gentlemen, innovations are the principal drivers of our new products.
We will strengthen this, and we will do profitable and green business with that in the future. As I said, innovations are the principal drivers of our new products. We cluster their development in six innovation growth fields, which will generate additional sales of more than EUR 1 billion for our company by 2025. We made good progress towards that goal in 2022. We increased sales with such products by more than 20%, a significant 20%, to over EUR 600 million. We were so fast, ladies and gentlemen, that it actually was breathtaking to me sometimes. I had to briefly interrupt and have a bit of water. To make sure our innovative solutions are close to our customers, we are extending our innovation centers in the growth regions.
Last fall, we opened a new innovation center in the U.S., in Allentown. This site will be our leading R&D center in North America. We also operate innovation centers in Singapore, India, and in China. In November 2022, we opened a new center for lithium ion batteries in Shanghai. Ladies and gentlemen, last year, to further boost innovation, we invested adequately. In light of the geopolitical uncertainties, we take several criteria into consideration in every investment. We remain close to our customers and markets, and intend to grow together with them exactly there. We keep an eye on the risks, and we invest where the conditions are best, taking a global view. We are building our new production facility for lipids, for mRNA active ingredients in the U.S., and we will extend it.
The production plant for the bio-based rhamnolipid biosurfactants I mentioned earlier, is being built in Europe, in Slovakia. In Germany, we are investing in an electrolyzer at our site in Herne to produce green hydrogen. This is a pilot project, actually. The hydrogen produced there is a precursor for the production of isophorone diamine, a key raw material for rotor blades of wind turbines. In Japan, we are investing in precursor products for batteries, and in Singapore, in more sustainable methionine production. Overall, our investment in these projects will be in the substantial triple digit million euro range. In view of their benefits for sustainability and regional job creation in the regions, they are co-funded by the governments and co-financed by the governments. This is our answer to the challenges of our times: focused investment in the transformation to sustainability and a foresighted geopolitical positioning.
Meine Damen und Herren, ladies and gentlemen, highly trained and motivated employees are essential to realize our ambitious strategic transformation. In the years ahead, it will therefore be important to keep a firm eye on the changes on the HR side in the years ahead. Here, too, the conditions are difficult. Demographic change and a shortage of skilled workers on the one hand, and curbing costs and raising efficiency on the other. To address these challenges, of which we are aware, and to address them properly, we are striving for a better structural balance, greater performance orientation, and more diversity. This makes Evonik more attractive as an employer. We achieve a structural balance, for example, by purposefully recruiting specialists in future-oriented fields, and by offering the best vocational training and continuing professional development.
Last year, we hired 450 new employees for innovation and IT, and 100 process technology engineers. We have over 1,500 apprentices. This is a lot, and we are proud of that. At the same time, we consider where vacancies that arise do not need to be filled again, for example, in our administration, because we intend to reduce our administrative costs further, quickly and significantly. Dear shareholders, of course, that's a nice word. Of course, we would like you, our shareholders, to participate in our in Evonik's successful development. You are giving us your trust and your money, which is most important to us. Evonik has a long-term dividend policy geared to reliability and continuity for this reason, even, and precisely in uncertain times.
Despite the challenging environment, we are proposing a stable dividend of EUR 1.17 per share for fiscal 2022. Our high dividend yield of around 6% confirms, again, our position among the leaders in the chemical industry. We can directly influence our dividends, we can only indirectly influence the share price, because many external factors also play a part in this. Having been driven to a large extent by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the situation of the capital markets remained turbulent in 2022. Alongside China's strict zero COVID policy, the economy was held back, above all, by the war in Ukraine and its consequences, resulting in falling share prices. The most important stock indices ended the year with significant losses for this reason. This, unfortunately, also applied to shares in Evonik.
Although the share price posted gains in 2021, it ended 2022 down 37% with a year-end closing price of almost EUR 18. That is EUR 17.94, to be precise. External influences continue to affect our share price performance in the current fiscal year. At the start of the year, falling energy and raw material costs, and the reopening of China, fueled hopes for a rapid end to the economic downturn. In parallel with this, our share price rose significantly. In the meantime, however, it has unfortunately become evident that weak demand and the market instability will be with us for a long time. This, ladies and gentlemen, is also impacting the capital markets. It is gratifying, actually, to see that our employees' interest in our shares is unabated and has remained intact.
This spring, we launched another tranche of our employee share program around the world. Once again, more than 10,000 employees acquired shares in Evonik, a participation rate of around 40%. Taking together all the programs we have run since 2014, our employees have acquired approximately 5.5 million shares, slightly more than 1% of the capital stock. For the employee share program in 2023, we purchased a total of 814,090 shares at an average price of EUR 19.65, with a pro rata share of the capital stock of EUR 1 per share. This is equivalent to about 0.17% of our capital stock of EUR 466 million. For the purchase of these shares, we used the authorization granted by the annual shareholders meeting in 2020.
All the shares have now been transferred to the eligible employees, the surplus stock has been sold on the market again. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us take a look ahead to the future. We expect 2023 to be another year that is divided into two phases, this time, the other way around. A slow start, followed by a successive upturn in our business. In the first quarter, our adjusted EBITDA of EUR 409 million was significantly lower than in the previous years. To give you an idea of the dimensions of this, in each of the past five years, adjusted EBITDA was over EUR 500 million in the first quarter. As expected, the weak economic momentum at year-end in 2022 continued at the start of this year. That is to say, of 2023.
Our customers' warehouses were still full, and the destocking continued there. Although we were once again able to offset variable costs by adjusting our selling prices, we could not prevent the downturn in volumes. Given the present economic weakness, predictions are still difficult. That said, we anticipate an improvement in the macroeconomic environment, especially in the second half of the year. Demand should develop favorably, especially for sustainable solutions. For example, for the transition to renewable energy and to electro mobility. Our sixth innovation growth fields should also grow further in 2023. On the other hand, we expect to see a significant reduction in earnings in the animal nutrition and Performance Intermediates businesses. Therefore, we are keeping costs in check. That is now firmly embedded in our DNA.
This year, we want to and will make savings of around EUR 250 million. We will be looking very closely at travel and consultancy expenses, postponing new recruitments, very significantly so. For the whole year, we expect adjusted EBITDA to reach the lower end of the outlook range of EUR 2.1 billion-EUR 2.4 billion, as communicated in March, while sales should be between EUR 17 billion and EUR 19 billion. These are ambitious targets in the face of so many adverse factors and given the global macroeconomic environment, with all its hindrances and adversities. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, the future may look unsettled, the uncertainties will be with us for a long time, we stay confident because Evonik is prepared.
Our green transformation is positioning us well for the future, for a better future, a future that will be better than our present time. The Evonik Group is investing intensively in growth areas, in innovative products with a strong sustainability profile, in technologies to enhance the production of chemicals, and in markets that are growing. I've outlined this today. Even so, one thing needs to be made clear. Although we are paving the way for a sustainable transformation, we cannot achieve it on our own. Close cooperation with politicians, our sector partners, and the trade unions is necessary. Together, we have succeeded in keeping collective bargaining agreements moderate and granting our employees tax-exempt one-off payments. In the same way, in the upcoming period, we need to focus on creating a political environment that enables us to steer our business with as much stability as possible through these difficult times.
At this juncture, I would like to thank the supervisory board, you, our esteemed shareholders, and all Evonik employees for your continued support and trust. I would be delighted if you continued to place your trust in Evonik in the future. On behalf of my colleagues on the executive board, I would like to thank you very much for your interest and your kind attention. Thank you.
Yeah, Christian Kullmann-
Dear Christian Kullmann, thank you very much for this very illustrative report. Once again, in 2022, despite aggravating conditions, the entire management board has shown an excellent performance again, and this was proven by the figures included in the financial statement. Let me point out that Mr. Kullmann's report is also available on the Internet, and you can download it from there. Ladies and gentlemen, I do not want to thank the management board alone, but I would like to expressively thank all employees of our company for what they have done and achieved in the past business year. I think I can do so also on behalf of the shareholders. I would like to ask the management board to transmit the words of thanks to the employees of the company as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, those amongst you who are attending our virtual AGM on the Internet, I would like to point out that at this point, the public part of the live transmission comes to an end. I thank you very much for your interest and your attendance. I bid you farewell.
The further course of the AGM can only be followed by the shareholders of the companies and their proxies, those who are connected via the online service. Only the shareholders connected via the online service can follow the general debate and can also apply for taking the floor.