HHLA shares successful 2021 business development with shareholders

The shareholders of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) are benefiting from the successful business development of 2021. With a large majority, the Annual General Meeting agreed on a dividend of € 0.75 per listed Class A share. In the previous year, it was € 0.45. This represents a distribution ratio of 53 percent. At its first meeting, the Supervisory Board again appointed Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Grube as Chairman of the Board. The Annual General Meeting took place virtually again this year. Shareholders were able to follow the entire event live via the company’s shareholder portal.

At the beginning of the Annual General Meeting, Chairwoman of the Executive Board Angela Titzrath looked back on a successful 2021 financial year. Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, HHLA was able to increase its Group EBIT by 84.7 percent year-on-year to € 228.2 million (previous year: € 123.6 million).

Chairwoman of the Executive Board, Angela Titzrath: “HHLA can be relied on in difficult times. This was also the case during the coronavirus pandemic. Even in the second year of this natural disaster, HHLA reliably fulfilled its supply mandate. This is the result of concerted joint effort by employees and management. While important ports in Asia, the Americas and Europe had to temporarily cease operations due to coronavirus infections, meaning that hundreds of ships could not be handled and global supply chains were massively disrupted, operational stability at HHLA facilities was ensured – whether in the Port of Hamburg, in Odessa, Tallinn, Trieste and at our railway subsidiary, Metrans.“

In the course of her speech, the Chairwoman also addressed the current challenges for the company in view of the severely disrupted supply chains.

Titzrath said: “All participants in the logistics chain are responsible for ensuring that the supply of companies and consumers remains continuously secured. I therefore appeal to all parties to be aware of their responsibility and not to exploit the situation for their own interests. Cooperation is the order of the day.”

The Annual General Meeting voted with a large majority to pay a cash dividend of € 0.75 per listed Class A share. A total of € 54.4 million will thus be distributed to the shareholders of the Port Logistics subgroup. This represents a payout ratio of 53 percent. As in the previous year, the Annual General Meeting resolved to distribute € 2.10 per Class S share for the unlisted Real Estate subgroup. All Class S shares are held by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. HHLA is thus distributing a combined total of € 60.1 million to the shareholders of the two subgroups for the 2021 financial year.

This year’s Annual General Meeting also included re-elections for the Supervisory Board of HHLA. At its constitutive meeting following the Annual General Meeting, the Supervisory Board re-elected Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Grube as Chairman of the Board. He has held this position since 2017. The following were confirmed as shareholder representatives: Prof. Dr. Burkard Schwenker, Dr. Isabella Niklas, Dr. Norbert Kloppenburg, Andreas Rieckhof and Dr. Sybille Roggenkamp.

The detailed voting results of the Annual General Meeting, the speech by the Chairwoman of the Executive Board, Angela Titzrath, and the accompanying presentation are available in the Investor Relations section under Annual General Meeting.