NORMA Group on the Capital Market

Supply Chain Difficulties, Interest Rate Hikes and the War in Ukraine Characterize Volatile Stock Market Environment in First Half of 2022

Global stock exchanges were extremely volatile in the first half of 2022. While the international stock markets reached historic highs at the beginning of the year, a clear negative trend subsequently set in. Besides the ongoing corona pandemic, the high level of inflation and the resulting reaction of central banks in the form of interest rate hikes had an increasingly negative impact. The war in Ukraine that started at the end of February 2022 further clouded the development of the global economy. Resulting economic sanctions, further difficulties in global supply chains, and repeated sharp price rises for important raw materials put severe pressure on the international stock markets. The good reporting season after the end of the first quarter of 2022 stabilized the markets for a short time, but the global stock indices nevertheless ended the first half of 2022 with noticeable price losses due to the prevailing uncertainties and gloomy economic outlook worldwide.

The adverse global environment in the first half of 2022 was also reflected in the performance of the German indices: The leading index DAX reached a new record high of 16,285 points at the beginning of January, but ended the first six months of 2022 with a major drop in prices to 12,784 points as a result of the global turbulence – a loss of 19.5% compared to the end of 2021. The decline in the MDAX was even more significant. The index closed at 25,823 points on June 30, 2022, a drop of 26.5% compared to the end of December 2021. The SDAX benchmark index also showed a similar trend at the end of the first half of 2022, falling by 27.6% to 11,881 points.

The US Dow Jones Index ended the first six months of 2022 down 15.3% on the end of 2021, and the broader S&P 500 Index emerged from the first half of 2022 with an even more significant loss of 20.6%. The MSCI World Automobiles Index, considered a trend indicator for the global stock market, stood at 254 points on June 30, 2022, 33.2% lower than at the end of 2021.

Performance of the NORMA Group share

The NORMA Group share opened the stock market year 2022 at a price of EUR 33.88 and reached its highest level in the first half of 2022 of EUR 36.02 already on January 5, 2022. Against the backdrop of increasing global economic and geopolitical tensions, the share showed a significantly more volatile movement in the further course of the year. Similar to the development of the reference index SDAX and various benchmarks, this ultimately led to a noticeable drop in the share price. The NORMA Group share marked its low for the current reporting period of EUR 20.20 on June 30, 2022, and at the same time closed the first half of the stock market year at a price of EUR 21.30. Compared to the year-end level in 2021, this resulted in a decline of 37.1%.

NORMA Group SE’s market capitalization amounted to EUR 678.7 million on June 30, 2022 (Dec 31, 2021: EUR 1,079.5 million). Measured by the free float market capitalization relevant for determining index membership, the company thus ranked 27 out of 70 in the SDAX.

Trading Volume

From January to June 2022, the average Xetra trading volume of NORMA Group shares was 73,611 shares per day (H1 2021: 60,593 shares). This equates to a lower average daily trading volume (number of shares traded multiplied by the respective closing price of the day on which they were traded) of EUR 2.0 million compared to the previous year (H1 2021: EUR 2.58 million). The distribution of the total trading activities of NORMA Group shares on the various trading platforms is shown in the graphic Distribution of Trading activity.

Broadly Diversified Shareholder Structure

NORMA Group has a regionally broadly diversified shareholder base with a significant share of international investors, primarily from the UK, the US, Germany, France and Scandinavia.

Institutional investors hold around 96% of the 31,862,400 NORMA Group shares. The management of NORMA Group SE (Management Board in its current composition) held 0.07% of the shares as of June 30, 2022 (Dec 31, 2021: 0.07%). The number of private shareholders totaled 5,468 as of the reporting date June 30, 2022, and thus recorded a significant increase compared to the end of 2021 (Dec 31, 2021: 5,067). Thus, a total of around 4.2% of the shares were held by private shareholders at the end of June 2022.

According to the voting rights notifications received by the end of July 2022, shares in NORMA Group SE designated as free float were held by the following investors:

Directors’ Dealings

No directors’ dealings subject to disclosure requirements were reported in the first half of 2022.

Sustainable Investor Relations Activities

NORMA Group’s Investor Relations activities seek to further increase awareness of the company on the capital market, strengthen confidence in its share in the long term and to achieve a fair valuation of the company.

Maintaining an ongoing, transparent dialog with analysts represents one key element of Investor Relations work. 13 national and international research firms and institutions currently follow the development of the NORMA Group share and submit their valuations at regular intervals. As of the end of July 2022, six of them rated the NORMA Group share as a “buy” while seven others recommended holding the share. The average target price was EUR 29.31 (Dec 31, 2021: EUR 43.46).

2022 Annual General Meeting Resolves Dividend of EUR 0.75 per Share

The Annual General Meeting of NORMA Group SE was held on May 17, 2022, as a virtual Annual General Meeting without shareholders physically present. Of the 31,862,400 shares bearing voting rights, a total of around 74% of the registered share capital of NORMA Group SE were represented. 32 shareholders followed the virtual Annual General Meeting live.

The Annual General Meeting of NORMA Group voted with a majority of 99.80% in favor of the proposal of the Supervisory Board and Management Board to distribute a dividend of EUR 0.75 per share. The total amount distributed was around EUR 23.9 million (2021: EUR 22.3 million), which thus amounted to a payout ratio of 33.0% of adjusted Group earnings of EUR 72.3 million in fiscal year 2021. All other items on the agenda were also approved by the 2022 Annual General Meeting by the necessary majority.

All voting results can be found in the Investor Relations section of the NORMA Group website www.NORMAGROUP.COM/CORP/DE/INVESTORS/.