Munich, December 5, 2019 - In its financial statements for 2019, Wacker Chemie AG intends to take an impairment of around €750 million on the carrying amount of its production facilities for hyperpure polysilicon. The write-down stems from the continued absence of a recovery in solar-grade polysilicon prices due to the high overcapacity created by Chinese manufacturers.

The exact amount to be written down will become clear during the completion of the financial statements. The impairment will reduce not only the value of property, plant and equipment in the consolidated statement of financial position, but also Group EBIT, WACKER POLYSILICON's EBIT, and the Group's net result for the year. Cash flow, on the other hand, will be unaffected by the write-down.

"The expected solar-market recovery has not yet materialized and prices are still very low for polysilicon used in photovoltaic applications," said WACKER's CFO, Tobias Ohler, explaining the reasons for the write-down. "At the same time, we only have limited visibility at present of how the market will develop. That is chiefly because China's construction of new solar installations falls short of initial expectations. An additional burden is the high polysilicon overcapacity in China. The Chinese government is subsidizing this expansion not only with loans and incentives, but also by providing polysilicon producers there with coal-generated electricity at extremely favorable prices. We have adjusted our projections for the coming year accordingly."

The Munich-based chemical company's polysilicon strategy remains unchanged. "We are continuing to work hard to reduce our costs and are keeping our focus on polysilicon for semiconductor applications and on high-quality material for monocrystalline solar cells," explained Ohler.

Due to the impairment, WACKER now expects a net result for 2019 of around €-750 million (previous guidance: slightly positive net income). As previously, today's guidance excludes special income of €112.5 million in insurance compensation, which WACKER booked in Q3 2019. WACKER's net result would exceed €100 million before the special effect stemming from the write-down but including this insurance compensation.

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on assumptions and estimates of WACKER's Executive Board. Although we assume the expectations in these forward-looking statements are realistic, we cannot guarantee they will prove to be correct. The assumptions may harbor risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual figures to differ considerably from the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such discrepancies include, among other things, changes in the economic and business environment, variations in exchange and interest rates, the introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance for new products or services, and changes in corporate strategy. WACKER does not plan to update its forward-looking statements, nor does it assume the obligation to do so.

For further information, please contact:
Wacker Chemie AG
Media Relations & Information
Christof Bachmair
Tel. +49 89 6279-1830
[email protected]