Income from operations and special items

• Income from operations declines considerably
• Premium once again earned on cost of capital

At €6,248 million, income from operations for the BASF Group in 2015 was considerably below the previous year’s level (€7,626 million).

Included in this figure is income from companies accounted for using the equity method, which declined from €273 million to €251 million.

Special items in 2015 resulted in an earnings contribution to EBIT of minus €491 million (2014: €269 million). This was largely the result of other special charges and income totaling minus €729 million, mostly from impairments on assets in the Oil & Gas segment. In 2014, other special charges and income totaling minus €369 million had especially pertained to impairment charges in the Oil & Gas, Chemicals, and Functional Materials & Solutions segments.

Divestitures in 2015 resulted in an earnings contribution of €476 million (2014: €712 million). This amount included the asset swap with Gazprom as well as the disposal of the white expandable polystyrene (EPS) business, the global textile chemicals business, and parts of the pharmaceutical ingredients and services business.

Compared with 2014, special charges from various restructuring measures rose by €155 million to €223 million and expenses for the integration of acquired businesses by €9 million to €15 million.

We once again earned a premium on our cost of capital in 2015. EBIT after cost of capital amounted to €194 million after €1,368 million in the previous year. Cost of capital increased particularly as a result of the higher amount of fixed assets. Contrasting this was the reduction of inventories and other receivables.