Our company’s strategic focus on growth and sustainably high margins is reinforced by continual and open communications with institutional/private investors and analysts. In 2008, we increasingly approached national and international investors and analysts to explain our business strategy, key financial indicators and future outlook. On many occasions, Executive Board members attended in person to answer questions from capital-market participants. Our event calendar included 22 roadshows in Germany, other European countries and the USA. We also held about 220 one-on-one meetings and participated in various international conferences. WACKER gave presentations at, for example, the HSBC Small/Mid Cap SRI Conference in Frankfurt, the Kepler Alternative Energy Conference in Paris, Deutsche Bank: German and Austrian Corporate Conference in Frankfurt, the EPIA PV Conference in Valencia, Credit Suisse Technology Day in Frankfurt and the Merrill Lynch European Chemicals Conference in London.
In 2008, we held our second WACKER Capital Market Day in London. The event was a success. Over 50 analysts and investors took part, either in person or – for the first time – via a webcast. They were able to gain an up-to-date overview of our company, technologies, innovations, and much more. This event was the first time that Dr. Rudolf Staudigl met analysts and investors in his new role as president and CEO.
In 2008, Wacker Chemie AG also engaged in ongoing dialog with private investors, presenting the Group and its markets at various forums. For example, we attended the Hamburg Exchange Convention, the shareholder forums organized by the DSW (German association of small investors) in Munich and Frankfurt, and the corporate presentations held by the SdK shareholder association in cooperation with Karlsruhe’s Sparkasse savings bank.