ANNUAL REPORT 2011 A.S. CRÉATION TAPETEN AG

Political stock markets weigh on share prices
Looking back, 2011 was another turbulent year
in the stock market. The European sovereign
debt crisis dominated the public debate, causing
great uncertainty among investors with regard
to the outlook for the world economy. Accordingly,
the various decisions taken by governments
in the course of 2011 to master the euro
crisis had a strong impact on share prices. They
rose and fell in line with market participants’
view of the appropriateness or inappropriateness
of those political decisions. Positive or negative
corporate news received relatively little attention,
which is why 2011 was also called the
year of unpredictable “political” stock markets.
Against this background, it is understandable
that the shares of banks and insurance companies
were hit particularly hard and that share
prices in general experienced high volatility.
The German stock index DAX reached an annual
high of over 7,500 points in early May 2011,
only to fall by about 32% to below 5,100 points
by September. On balance, the DAX lost 14.7%
in the course of 2011. Due to the more favourable
economic situation in Germany, the DAX
did not drop quite as sharply as the benchmark
indices of other European stock exchanges. The
decline in share prices was not confined to the
large caps but also affected the small and mid
caps. Accordingly, both the MDAX (-12.1%)
and the SDAX (-14.5%) declined at similar
rates as the DAX.
The A.S. Création share lost in value
in 2011
The chart on the next page shows that the
A.S. Création share was unable to isolate itself
from the general market trend but followed the
trend in the SDAX until late November 2011.
Accordingly, the price of the A.S. Création share
initially moved sideways in the first seven months
of 2011 and did not pick up significantly from
the year’s opening price of € 28.76. While the
highest price of the year of € 31.00, which was
reached during this period, was up by 7.8% on
the year’s opening price, this price level was not
maintained. Early August 2011 than saw a slump
in global share prices, which was caused by
growing doubts about a political solution to
the European sovereign debt crisis and concerns
about a worldwide recession. The price of the
A.S. Création share followed this general trend,
dropping within a few days by 17.2% from
€ 29.00 on August 2, 2011 to € 24.02 on
August 9, 2011. The publication of the interim
report for the six-month period ended June 30,
2011 on August 4, 2011, in which A.S. Création
reported a decline in net income by only 6.5%
was unable to halt the decline in the share
price but rather matched the depressed general
mood in the capital market.
Until the end of October 2011, the price of the
A.S. Création share stabilised at around
€ 25.00. But then A.S. Création had to publish
THE SHARE AND OUR SHAREHOLDERS
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