7 – Other operating income

Income from the adjustment and reversal of provisions recognized in other operating expenses was largely related to risks from lawsuits and damage claims, closures and restructuring measures, employee obligations, and various other items as part of the normal course of business. Provisions were reversed or adjusted if the circumstances on the balance sheet date were such that utilization was no longer expected, or expected to a lesser extent.

Revenue from miscellaneous revenue-generating activities primarily included income from rentals, catering operations, cultural events and logistics services.

Income from foreign currency and hedging transactions as well as from the measurement of LTI options pertained to the foreign currency translation of receivables and payables as well as of currency derivatives and other hedging transactions. In 2017, there was also income from the reversal of provisions for the long-term incentive (LTI) program of €68 million. In 2016, by contrast, there was an expense of €267 million arising from the long-term incentive (LTI) program. This was reported under other operating expenses.

Income from the translation of financial statements in foreign currencies contained gains from the translation of companies whose local currency is different from the functional currency.

Gains on divestitures and the disposal of noncurrent assets in the amount of €195 million resulted from the transfer of the leather chemicals business to the Stahl group. Further income of €75 million resulted from the disposal of shares in oil and gas concessions in Argentina. In the previous year, these particularly included gains amounting to €349 million from the sale of the industrial coatings business to AkzoNobel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Income of €93 million arose from the sale of the global polyolefin catalysts business to W.R. Grace & Co., Columbia, Maryland. Further income of €83 million resulted from the disposal of BASF’s OLED intellectual property assets to UDC Ireland Limited, Dublin, Ireland. Income of €72 million pertained to real estate divestitures in several countries.

Reversals of impairment losses on noncurrent assets amounted to €189 million in 2017. These primarily concerned oil and gas fields in Norway.

Income from the reversal of valuation allowances for business-related receivables resulted mainly from the settlement of customer-related receivables for which a valuation allowance had been recorded.

Other income included government grants and government assistance from several countries amounting to €133 million in 2017 and €156 million in 2016. In both years, these were primarily attributable to price compensation from the Argentinian government for gas producers, which was introduced in connection with the New Gas Price Scheme (NGPS) in response to the lower, partly locally regulated gas prices.

Further income resulted from refunds and compensation payments in the amount of €431 million in 2017 and €291 million in 2016. In 2017, these largely included insurance refunds for the damages caused by the fire at the North Harbor in Ludwigshafen, Germany. In the previous year, these were predominantly due to insurance refunds arising from a plant outage at the Ellba C.V. joint operation in Moerdijk, Netherlands. Moreover, income in both years was related to gains from precious metal trading, refunds of consumption taxes and a number of additional items.