AAK Annual Report 2018

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 Sustain- ability 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 manage- ment 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 manage- ment, 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 inter- est-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 42