Product development
The Group’s product development operations are
described in further detail on pages 18–28.
Environment
The environmental impact from our plants includes
emissions of odorous substances, solvents, smoke
and gases into the atmosphere, as well as discharging
fats, oxygen-consuming material, and nutrients into the
water, and also creating organic waste and noise. We
continually review our impact on all levels to further
improve environmental performance at AAK. We
operate all our plants with appropriate official permits
in all countries in which we operate. In Sweden, the
operations in Karlshamn are licensable under Swedish
law.
Employees
The recruitment of skilled and competent personnel is
an important component in maintaining competitiveness
for the AAK Group. The Group therefore has continuous
active programs for personnel development.
Risk management and sensitivity analysis
All business operations involve risks – a controlled
approach to risk-taking is a prerequisite for maintaining
good profitability. Risks may depend on events in the
operating environment and may affect a certain sector
or market. A risk may also be purely company-specific
or country-specific. At AAK, effective risk management
is a continual process which is conducted within the
framework of operational management and forms a
natural part of the day-to-day monitoring of operations.
For more detailed information, please refer to the
section on Risks and risk management on pages 34–35
and to Note 3, Financial Risk Management.
External risks
The AAK Group is exposed to the fierce competition
which characterizes the industry related to fluctuations
in raw material prices which affect capital tied up.
Operational risk
The raw materials used in operations are agricultural
products, and availability may therefore vary due to
climatic and other external factors.
Financial risk
The Group’s management of financial risks is described
in Note 3, Financial Risk Management.
Corporate Governance Report
The corporate governance report on pages 107–115
is part of the Directors’ Report. For information on the
composition and work, etc., of the Board of Directors,
see the Corporate Governance Report on pages
108–110.
Sustainability Report
Under Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Swedish Annual
Accounts Act, AAK has decided to prepare its Sustainability
Report separately from the Annual Report. The
Sustainability Report was submitted to the auditor with
the Annual Report.
Parent
The Company is the holding company of the AAK
Group, and its activities consist mainly of joint Group
functions connected to the development and management
of the Group. The Parent employs personnel
with skills and competencies to execute group-wide
financing, accounting, information, marketing, product
development, human resources and IT. The Parent is
also responsible for Group strategy and risk management,
and provides legal and tax-related services to
Group companies.
The Parent’s invoicing in 2018 amounted to SEK 119
million (97). The profit after financial items amounted
to SEK 2,211 million (negative 11). Interest-bearing
liabilities minus cash and cash equivalents and interest
bearing assets totalled a positive of SEK 1,710
million (negative 1,440 as of December 31, 2017).
Investments in intangible and tangible assets amounted
to SEK 6 million (3). The Parent had a total of 37 (36)
employees on December 31, 2018.
No significant events have occurred after the end of
the reporting period.
Background to and motivation of the proposed dividend
The objective for the dividend in the long term is to
correspond to 30–50 percent of consolidated profits
after tax, while always considering AAK’s long-term
financing requirements. During the last ten years, the
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