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. The supervisory board of a publicly listed European society (SE) that is composed of the same number of shareholder and employee representatives must, according to section 17(2) of the SE Implementation Act, consist of at least 30% each of women and men. The Supervisory Board of BASF SE currently comprises three women and nine men. Two of the six shareholder representatives elected at the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting are women. According to the legal stipulations of section 17(2) SE Implementation Act, the minimum quota is not to be fulfilled immediately but rather upon any necessary reappointments, that is, new elections. In 2017, the employee-elected Supervisory Board member Robert Oswald left the Supervisory Board. He is succeeded by Sinischa Horvat, who joined the Supervisory Board without additional appointment, that is, without election, as the member personally chosen to replace Robert Oswald as early as 2013 until the end of the 2019 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. In accordance with legal regulations, the minimum quota will therefore be reached after the next regular Supervisory Board election in 2019 at the latest.

As a target figure for the Board of Executive Directors, the Supervisory Board determined that, in accordance with section 111(5) AktG for the second target-attainment period after the law’s entry into force, which began on January 1, 2017, the Board of Executive Directors should continue to have at least one female member. With eight members of the Board of Executive Directors, this represented 12.5% on the date the target was set. The Board of Executive Directors also decided on target figures for the proportion of women in the two management levels below the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE: Women are to make up 12.1% of the leadership level directly below the Board, and the level below that is to comprise 7.3% women. This corresponds to the status at the time these target figures were determined. The deadline for achieving the goals for the second target-attainment period was set for December 31, 2021.

BASF views the further development and promotion of women as a global duty independent of individual Group companies. We set ourselves ambitious global goals for this and made further progress in 2017. BASF will continue working on expanding the percentage of women in its leadership team. The company is carrying out, and constantly enhancing, worldwide measures to this effect.