Divestitures

WACKER did not divest any business fields or product business in 2015.

Changes in Our Joint Ventures and Associates

Having previously been the sole shareholder, WACKER completed an initial public offering to launch part of Siltronic AG on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on June 11, 2015. A total of 12,650,000 shares were placed, including a greenshoe option, at an issue price of € 30 per share. The total consisted of 5,000,000 new shares issued through a capital increase at Siltronic AG and 7,650,000 shares originally held by WACKER. The proceeds from the issue amounted to € 379.5 million, of which Siltronic AG received € 150.0 million, and Wacker-Chemie Dritte Venture GmbH, € 229.5 million. The costs of this transaction amounted to € 17.6 million. The WACKER Group has held 57.8 percent of the capital stock of Siltronic AG since the IPO; the free float is 42.2 percent.

Investments

Capital expenditures rose by just under 46 percent year over year, to € 834.0 million (2014: € 572.2 million).

WACKER’s investing activities remained centered on the construction of the new polysilicon site at Charleston, Tennessee (USA). About € 550 million – or some 65 percent of all investment spending in 2015 – went toward this project. In December 2015, we started commissioning the production facilities there. To respond to growth in our chemical business, we completed a number of facilities in 2015, as scheduled. They included a new dispersion reactor at the Calvert City site with an annual capacity of 85,000 metric tons and a production plant for dispersible polymer powders at Burghausen with an annual capacity of 50,000 metric tons. We also expanded our production capacity for modified siloxanes at Burghausen. Products from this plant are used in a wide variety of end products, such as silicone fluids, emulsions and resins.