Net Income from Shareholdings, Financial Result and Income After Taxes
Net income from shareholdings amounted to –€4,939 million in 2022, after €207 million in 2021. The significant decline was due to special charges of around €6.3 billion, mainly from non-cash-effective impairment losses on the shareholding in Wintershall Dea AG. These were especially due to the deconsolidation of Wintershall Dea’s Russian exploration and production activities, which subsequently resulted in a revaluation of Wintershall Dea’s Russian shareholdings. Furthermore, write-downs were performed on the company’s European gas transportation business, including a complete impairment on the shareholding in Nord Stream AG and the financing of the Nord Stream 2 project. Wintershall Dea’s operating earnings contribution for 2022 rose to approximately €1.5 billion, after €335 million in the previous year.
The financial result improved by €17 million to –€418 million. This was mainly attributable to the €136 million improvement in the other financial result. This predominantly resulted from higher net interest income on income taxes and lower net expense in connection with bonds in foreign currency and related hedging instruments. By contrast, the interest result decreased by €119 million to –€433 million, especially driven by higher interest expenses for financial indebtedness due to increased interest rates and a higher financing volume.
Overall, income before income taxes amounted to €1,190 million in 2022, after €7,448 million in the previous year. Income tax expenses were €1,581 million (2021: €1,430 million). Given the high impairment losses in net income from shareholdings, which do not have an impact on tax expense, the tax rate was 132.9%.
Noncontrolling interests amounted to €236 million compared with €459 million in 2021, primarily due to lower earnings contributions from BASF TotalEnergies Petrochemicals LLC, Houston, Texas, and BASF PETRONAS Chemicals Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was partially offset by higher earnings contributions from the BASF Shanshan companies.
Net income was –€627 million compared with €5,523 million in 2021.
Earnings per share amounted to –€0.70 compared with €6.01 in the previous year.