I would now like to ask Matthias Zachert, our CEO, to start with his presentation on fiscal 2021 and give us an outlook for 2022. The manuscript had also been published on our website previously. However, please check against delivery.
Good morning, dear stockholders. I would like to welcome you from Cologne to the virtual LANXESS annual stockholders meeting. Actually, we have every reason to rejoice today. Fiscal 2021 was a truly successful year for our company, despite the ongoing challenges posed by the corona pandemic. We have also made an excellent start to the current year. It is indeed difficult for me to present the successful results of our work to you today with a light heart. The terrible war in Ukraine, which has now already lasted three months, the suffering of the people and the effects of this conflict, which can hardly be foreseen today, do concern us all. My generation has not yet had to experience such a war in Europe, and we are all the more stunned by the events.
The brutality with which the Ukrainian population is being attacked is shocking to us all. That is why we do, of course, support the international sanctions imposed on Russia. LANXESS has suspended all investments in Russia and, as far as contractually possible, ceased doing business with Russian customers. LANXESS supported the work of local aid organizations at an early stage with a substantial donation. In addition, there are aid projects initiated by our employees abroad with our support, and I am proud that many of our colleagues also show great empathy and solidarity in their private lives. In addition to the concern for the people affected, however, we as a company must also be concerned about our larger sites, especially here in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
The war has once again driven up energy prices dramatically, and in Germany we are discussing security of supply and how our production facilities can be operated in the future. What other consequences the war in Ukraine will have is far from clear. At LANXESS, we focus on what is within our sphere of influence and what we can shape ourselves. This is what we have already done during the other major crisis, the corona pandemic. That we are successful in doing so is proven by a look at the fiscal years 2020 and 2021. As in the previous year, in all our actions and interactions, we had to respect the restrictions and rules of conduct resulting from the corona pandemic. For a company like LANXESS, which thrives on the discourse of its people, this was of course, once again, a major burden.
At the same time, however, the second pandemic year was once again a great example of the team spirit, the adaptability, and the commitment of our employees. Even though I've been with LANXESS for such a long time, I am always incredibly impressed by the way our colleagues deal with such challenges. It was fantastic. The figures I am now very pleased to present to you reflect this attitude, and for this I would like to express my sincere thanks to all our employees worldwide. Ladies and gentlemen, the year of growth we promised you for 2021 is what we delivered. At EUR 7.5 billion, our group sales in 2021 were 23.8% higher than the prior year figure of EUR 6.104 billion.
Our EBITDA pre exceptionals increased by 17.2% to EUR 1.010 billion, compared with EUR 862 million in the previous year and was thus within our guided range of EUR 1 billion-EUR 1.05 billion. Our EBITDA margin pre exceptionals was 13.4% compared with 14.1% in the previous year and was impacted by a sharp rise in costs and one-time effects. At EUR 218 million, net income from continuing operations was below the previous year's figures of EUR 908 million, as expected, because in 2020 our net income was strongly impacted by the sale of our stake in chemical park operator Currenta, as you may recall. Overall, the figures clearly show. Our work has borne fruit. Of course, we would like to share this success with you.
We therefore are proposing a dividend of EUR 1.05 per share to the annual stockholders meeting. This is 5% more than in the previous year and corresponds to a total payout of around EUR 91 million. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud of our results. On the one hand, of course, because they are very good, but also because we achieve these results under extremely unfavorable conditions. This shows the great strength and stability LANXESS has today after years of restructuring. Nevertheless, we cannot close our eyes to the ever-increasing external pressure. The dramatic increase in energy prices that we experienced last year, and which continues unabated to this day, is extremely worrying. Since 2021, we have still been able to largely pass on the increased energy costs through our sales prices.
However, if the rise in energy prices continues, it will pose an even greater threat to Germany as an industrial location and its companies than is already the case today. I truly appreciate the efforts of German politicians to find new energy sources. I think it is absolutely right to end Germany's dependence on Russian gas supplies as quickly as possible. This desire must not lead to irrational acts that weaken our own industrial base. First of all, we need viable alternatives. Unfortunately, renewable energies are yet to be a solution because they are still available neither in sufficient quantities nor at competitive prices. At the same time, policymakers should provide rapid relief from skyrocketing prices. In concrete terms, this means, for example, reducing taxes, levies, and other price components and costs that can be influenced by the government in the short term.
The abolition of the renewable energy surcharge in Germany on July 1st is an initial positive signal, but it will not be enough to curb the current price trend and make electricity prices internationally competitive. As you can see, the challenges are great. I am calling on politicians and, in particular, on the future state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, act quickly, act decisively, act now because time is short. Actually, I hope, and probably all of North Rhine-Westphalia's industry hopes, that we will soon have a new government, a stable government in which the partners will work together well and in a spirit of trust. A government with an awareness of the importance of industry in our state and of the challenges we face on a global scale.
I have already mentioned the secure supply of energy at competitive prices, but we also need enough electricity from sustainable resources and sources if climate neutrality is to succeed. If North Rhine-Westphalia is to remain an attractive location internationally, then rapid approval procedures are just as necessary as future improvements to the infrastructure. The previous state government made a great deal of progress in this area. Above all, it recognized that the modernization of our state, including the ecological modernization, can only succeed if politics and business work together in partnership. I hope that this will continue in the future. Dear stockholders, we have only limited influence on the framework conditions within which we operate and produce. However, the decisions we make for the successful future of LANXESS are entirely in our hands.
In this respect, we have taken LANXESS a good step forward in the fiscal year 2021. I have already spoken about the acquisitions of the two French companies, Teyssié and Theseo , at last year's annual stockholders meeting. I also reported on Emerald Kalama Chemical, at that time, the second-largest acquisition in our history. We successfully completed all three transactions last year as planned. With all three acquisitions, we have strengthened our newest segment, Consumer Protection. Ladies and gentlemen, you may already have noticed this last year, we are immensely optimistic about the potential of this segment with its consumer-oriented protection products. That is why in the second half of 2021, we once again combined all our strengths and energies and signed an agreement for our fourth takeover.
Last August, we initiated the second-largest transaction in our history to date with the acquisition of microbial control business of the U.S. group, International Flavors & Fragrances, for around $1.3 billion. IFF Microbial Control is one of the leading suppliers of antimicrobial active ingredients and formulations for material protection, preservatives, and disinfectants.
The business fits ideally with our strategic focus, specialty chemicals with attractive margins, applications in a wide range of industries, and with a global footprint. With its approximately 270 employees, IFF Microbial Control generates sales of around $450 million and normalized EBITDA of around $100 million. Within four years of the closing of the transaction, we aim to generate additional EBITDA of around $35 million through synergies. This acquisition will also make LANXESS more profitable and stable. It will make us one of the world's largest supplier of microbial control products and consumer protection, our strongest segment. We expect the transaction to be completed by the third quarter. IFF Microbial Control will then be integrated into our Material Protection Products business unit.
Dear stockholders, in the midst of the pandemic, we not only made four promising acquisitions, but also drove forward the organic growth of LANXESS. Over the past few years, we have strengthened our Krefeld-Uerdingen site here in Germany with an investment package worth more than EUR 130 million. We built or expanded several plants, including a completely new production facility for sustainable high-performance plastics, which I inaugurated just a few weeks ago. With investment costs of around EUR 50 million, it was one of the biggest projects in the package. At our site in Changzhou in China, we will build a second compounding plant for the high-tech plastics of the Durethan and Pocan brands. We are investing around EUR 30 million to increase our production capacity there by 30,000 tons per year.
Once the plant comes on stream in the first quarter of next year, we will even better be able to meet the high demand from the steadily growing Chinese automotive industry. E-mobility is booming in China and is placing ever new demands on lightweight applications, which our high-tech plastics can serve excellently. Ladies and gentlemen, the motive that guides all of us at LANXESS is the successful future of our company. LANXESS shall grow, offer attractive products, and open up new markets. In our view, however, a successful future also includes LANXESS becoming an increasingly sustainable company in all its facets. As part of an energy-intensive industry, we bear a special responsibility, of which we are very aware. We therefore want to play an active role in shaping our industry and its global value chains towards greater sustainability.
As you all know, we were one of the first chemical companies to set ourselves the ambitious goal of becoming climate neutral by 2040, and I am pleased to tell you we are right on track to achieve this. For example, as announced last year, we will begin to construct another state-of-the-art nitrous oxide reduction plant at our Antwerp site in Belgium this fall. Once operational, this plant is expected to eliminate 300,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents per year and take us a good step forward on our path to climate neutrality. Our first sustainability-linked bond, which we placed on the European capital markets last year, also illustrates how convinced we are of achieving our goal of climate neutrality. The benchmark bond has a volume of EUR 600 million. Its interest rate is linked to our interim climate target of 2025.
Well, dear stockholders, I've just spoken about LANXESS becoming more sustainable in all its facets. Our focus is not only on our emissions, it also extends to our products. For example, we systematically evaluate the sustainability of our portfolio and take sustainability criteria into account when developing new products and applications. I just reported on the new production plant at the Krefeld-Uerdingen site here in Germany. It will enable us to produce new sustainable high performance plastics. The new plastic grade contains 92% of sustainable raw materials. It is the first product of LANXESS's new Scopeblue range, which we launched last year. Scopeblue products consist largely of circular raw materials or have a significantly lower CO2 footprint than conventional products. We also focus on sustainability with other products.
At our Brilon site here in Germany, for example, we are producing a new variant of our composite material, Tepex. This is based 100% on the biological raw materials, flax and polylactic acid. The material is extremely strong, can be used in the automotive and electronics industries, and its great advantage can be shredded without difficulty at the end of its life cycle and processed into new plastic. Dear stockholders, we have achieved a great deal in 2021. The LANXESS I presented to you today is a robust, versatile company that is focused on the future and holds strong positions in numerous markets. We have therefore started fiscal 2022 with confidence and optimism, despite the possibility of further price increases for energy and raw materials. Our first quarter showed strong growth at EUR 320 million.
EBITDA pre exceptionals was 32.2% above the prior-year figure of EUR 242 million. Group sales and net income also increased significantly year-on-year. The outlook for the current second quarter is also positive. Here we expect EBITDA pre exceptionals of between EUR 280 million and EUR 350 million compared with EUR 277 million in the prior-year period. For the full year, we continue to expect significant year-on-year earnings growth, even though the consequences of the Ukraine War are still unclear today. Ladies and gentlemen, the past months were marked by unsettling developments, not only for us as a company, but also for our society as a whole. Much of what seemed safe and certain to us has been called into question by the corona pandemic and the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Rarely have we had to deal with so many uncertainties. Nevertheless, we remain clearly focused on the future. At LANXESS, we have already successfully overcome many crises and will keep the company fully on course even in these stormy times. Thank you very much for your trust in our work. Stay healthy. Stay with us. Thank you for your attention.