Commitments to promote the participation of women in leadership positions at BASF SE

• Minimum quota on Supervisory Board, target figures for Board of Executive Directors and top management

On April 24, 2015, the Law on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and Public Sector came into force in Germany.

At BASF SE, this law is being put into practice as follows: According to Section 17(2) of the SE Implementation Act, the supervisory board of a publicly listed European society (SE) that is composed of the same number of shareholder and employee representatives must consist of at least 30% each of women and men. The Supervisory Board of BASF SE currently comprises nine men and three women. Two of the six shareholder representatives elected at the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting are women. Should any reappointments be necessary on the Supervisory Board of BASF SE, legal regulations – and the stipulations of the BASF SE Employee Participation Agreement based on them – dictate that the percentage of women be increased from the current figure of 25% to at least 30%; that is, four women. The legal minimum quota will therefore be reached after the next regular Supervisory Board election in 2019 at the latest.

Furthermore, pursuant to Section 111(5) of the German Stock Corporation Act, the Supervisory Board determined as a target figure for the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE that the Board of Executive Directors should have at least one female member. This represents 12.5% of currently eight members of the Board of Executive Directors; the goal had already been reached at the time the target figure was determined.

In addition, the Board of Executive Directors decided on target figures for the proportion of women in the two management levels below the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE as per the legal requirements in Section 76(4) of the German Stock Corporation Act: Women are to make up 9.4% of the leadership level directly below the Board, and the level below that is to comprise 11.8% women. This corresponds to the status at the time these target figures were determined.

The deadline for achieving these goals for the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE and both management levels below has been set for December 31, 2016. After that, the company will review the numbers and subsequently decide on new target figures for BASF SE.