Investor Relations

EVONIK INDUSTRIES AG

Questions and Answers concerning the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Evonik Industries AG

The annual shareholders' meeting on August 31, 2020 will be held as a virtual shareholders' meeting in accordance with the provisions of the German Act on Measures in Corporate, Cooperative, Association, Foundation and Residential Property Law to combat the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic (COVID 19 Act).

Online-Service

Evonik offers its shareholders an Online-Service for e.g. the registration for email dissemination of the invitation to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting or the ordering of entrance tickets for the Annual Shareholders' Meeting as well as for granting proxy authority and issuing voting instructions.

FAQs

The Annual Shareholders' Meeting will take place on Monday, August 31, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. (Central European Summer Time - CEST) at the administrative headquarters of Evonik Industries AG Essen as a virtual Annual Shareholders' Meeting without physical presence of the shareholders or their proxies (with the exception of the proxies designated by the company).

The attendance shareholders' meeting is the legal standard. However, the German Act on Measures in Corporate, Cooperative, Association, Foundation and Residential Property Law to combat the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic (COVID-19 Act) makes it possible to hold a shareholders’ meeting in 2020 without the physical presence of shareholders or their proxies (so-called "virtual shareholders meeting”).

At an attendance shareholders' meeting, each shareholder may attend the meeting in person or through a proxy "on site". This is excluded at the virtual shareholders' meeting. It takes place without physical presence of the shareholders and their proxies. The legislator recently created this possibility with the German Act on Measures in Corporate, Cooperative, Association, Foundation and Residential Property Law to combat the effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic ("COVID 19 Act").

Since holding a face-to-face meeting in times of the COVID-19 pandemic would involve infection risks and would also be simply impossible in some cases under the applicable official requirements, the legislator has created a possibility to hold a shareholders' meeting with the virtual shareholders' meeting.

With the virtual Annual Shareholders' Meeting, the online offers for following the meeting have been expanded. In particular, the virtual Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Evonik Industries AG is transmitted in full in sound and vision on the internet for shareholders, who can exercise their voting rights electronically and submit questions in advance.

The registration procedure for the virtual shareholders' meeting does not differ from that of a meeting by presence: Shareholders who are entered in the share register in good time receive the invitation to the shareholders' meeting together with the invitation brochure including the agenda by post or e-mail. Together with the invitation, a registration form is made available to shareholders. They must register with the company within a certain period, either by returning the completed form or via the online service. Shareholders who are not registered for the e-mail delivery of the invitation to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting will find the access data for the Online Service, which includes the registration and the granting of proxy and voting instructions, in the invitation. The other shareholders use their self-chosen access password and their shareholder number, which is also stated in the invitation e-mail. With the publication of the invitation to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting in the Federal Gazette on July 16, 2020, the invitation brochure and other documents will be available on the Internet.

The last filing date is Monday, 24 August 2020 (12.00 midnight (Central European Summer Time - CEST)).

As usual, shareholders can exercise their voting rights up to the registration deadline (see question 5) by postal vote or by granting power of attorney and instructions to the voting proxies designated by the Company, to an intermediary, a shareholders’ association, a proxy advisor or to a person with equivalent status, in each case in paper form and in electronic form via the Online Service. It is also possible to change the postal vote or instructions via the Online Service after the registration deadline until immediately before the Chairman of the Meeting expressly closes the voting during the Annual Shareholders' Meeting.

All shareholders entered in the Evonik Industries AG share register are invited to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting. The first mailing is sent after the convening of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting. A further mailing is sent two weeks before the Annual Shareholders' Meeting to all shareholders entered in the share register after the first mailing.

Shareholders registered after this deadline will no longer receive a letter, but will still have the opportunity to register for the Annual Shareholders' Meeting by the closing date for registration (August 24, 2020, 12.00 midnight CEST - receipt by the company), stating their shareholder number, name, address and date of birth.

A shareholder hotline is available for questions regarding registration for the Annual Shareholders' Meeting. If a shareholder has not received the expected registration documents, the hotline can be used, for example, to check whether the shareholder's registration has been properly completed. The telephone number of the hotline is +49 1802-739 376. Calls cost €0.06 from the landline network of Deutsche Telekom and maximum €0.42 per minute from German mobile networks.

The Financial Report 2019 is available on the website of Evonik Industries AG as an online version. Shareholders who would like a printed copy may order one from Evonik Industries AG by email to birgit.hanickel@evonik.com or by calling the hotline on +49 1802 - 739 376. Calls cost €0.06 from the landline network of Deutsche Telekom and maximum €0.42 per minute from German mobile networks.

Shareholders of Evonik Industries AG can follow the Annual Shareholders' Meeting live and in full on the internet. If you are not already registered to receive the invitation to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting by e-mail, you will find the access data for the online service in the invitation, which will be sent out from August 6, 2020. The opening of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting by the Chairman of the Meeting and the speech by the Chairman of the Executive Board will also be broadcast publicly without requiring access data.

Only those shareholders registered in the share register are, vis à vis the Company, deemed to be shareholders of the Company. An unregistered shareholder may not register for the Annual Shareholders' Meeting in person. The exercise of voting rights therefore requires the issue of a corresponding power of attorney by the person entered in the share register instead of the person entered as the beneficiary.

First of all, it is a prerequisite for the submission of questions that the shareholder has registered with the company in good time, i.e. by 24 August 2020 (12.00 midnight (CEST)) (see question 5). He can then submit questions on the agenda to the Executive Board via the online service. The access data for the Online Service can be found, if you are not already registered for e-mail delivery of the invitation to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, in the invitation, which will be sent out starting on August 6, 2020.

The questions must be received by the Company via the Company's Internet Service by August 29, 2020, 12.00 midnight (CEST) at the latest.

There will be no confirmation of participation this year, as the shareholders cannot participate "on site". Shareholders can, however, print out a receipt for the instructions given in connection with voting in the online service.

Shareholders' Hotline

Phone: +49 1802 - 739 376

€0.06 per call from the landline network of Deutsche Telekom, call charges from German mobile networks max. €0.42 per minute.