Brenntag : Speech of the Board of Management - GSM on June 10, 2021 (as of June 4, 2021) (PDF, 162 KB)

Brenntag SE

Virtual General Shareholders' Meeting

on June 10, 2021

Speech by the Board of Management

Dr Christian Kohlpaintner, CEO

Georg Müller, CFO

Version as of June 4, 2021

Check against delivery

Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Board of Management of Brenntag SE, I bid you a warm welcome to our General Shareholders' Meeting today. This is now our second entirely virtual Shareholders' Meeting. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have far-reaching effects on many areas of our lives. Unfortunately, that means that we are not yet able to welcome you in person again today. Nonetheless, we are pleased to be providing you with detailed information on Brenntag's successful business performance.

Our CFO, Georg Müller, and I will report on 2020, the first few months of the current year and our transformation programme, Project Brenntag.

The past year was an exceptional one for Brenntag. It was a year of change and transformation for our company.

We met a number of challenges very successfully:

• We achieved very good annual results despite an exceptionally challenging market environment.
• We carefully addressed the specific requirements resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Brenntag SE

General Shareholders' Meeting June 10, 2021 Speech by the Board of Management (Version as of 4 June, 2021)

• And we resolutely pursued and started to systematically implement our comprehensive transformation programme, Project Brenntag.

Dear shareholders, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed all our lives for the long term. That goes for our almost 17,000 employees, our suppliers, our customers and our global sales markets, too. And this is one reason why we as a global company need to tread new paths.

Early on last year, we took the forward-looking step of setting up a global crisis management system. Our top priority is to ensure the health and safety of our employees and business partners. Whether in sales, logistics or administration - we were able to swiftly and seamlessly adapt to new ways of working and continuously maintain our operating activities. This was by no means something that could be taken for granted and is an excellent team achievement!

I would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to all our employees for their efforts and flexibility in adapting to the new environment shaped by the pandemic, while at the same time continuing to work on our company's success.

For 2020 was a very successful year for Brenntag. Despite exceptional and sometimes adverse circumstances, we achieved convincing operating results.

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Brenntag SE

General Shareholders' Meeting June 10, 2021 Speech by the Board of Management (Version as of 4 June, 2021)

At the same time, we started working on Project Brenntag. At this point last year, I reported on the initial results of the holistic analysis of our company. In the further course of last year, we consolidated those findings into our "Project Brenntag". This transformation programme essentially comprises four overarching topics:

1. the adaptation of our operating model
2. a distinct and tailored go-to-market approach
3. the optimization of our global site network and
4. our employees and the change management supporting them.

We are focusing entirely on the project's execution and are working full steam ahead to implement all the planned measures.

On the whole, we coped with the demanding tasks facing us last year very well. At the same time, though, we also boldly and carefully set the course for Brenntag's successful future.

In a moment, our CFO, Georg Müller, will talk in detail about our financial performance in the past financial year and in the first quarter of 2021. I will then report on the transformation programme Project Brenntag and our progress so far.

First of all, though, I would like to mention the changes on the Group Board of Management.

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Brenntag SE

General Shareholders' Meeting June 10, 2021 Speech by the Board of Management (Version as of 4 June, 2021)

In the context of the new operating model and the transformation taking place under Project Brenntag, the Board of Management has been restructured. Besides Georg Müller as CFO and myself as CEO, there are the two Chief Operating Officers (COO) responsible for operations: Steven Terwindt for the Brenntag Essentials division and Henri Nejade, who is responsible for Brenntag Specialties.

In addition, the new position of Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) has been created to address the numerous transformation-related requirements that Brenntag faces. I am pleased to be able to hand over to Ewout van Jarwaarde, who has held this post since January 1, 2021 and will now briefly introduce himself to you. Our CFO, Georg Müller, will then explain our financial results in detail.

Ewout, if you please!

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Brenntag SE

General Shareholders' Meeting June 10, 2021 Speech by the Board of Management (Version as of 4 June, 2021)