Publication of Insider Information pursuant to Art. 17 MAR (formerly: Ad-hoc Announcements pursuant to § 15 WpHG)

K+S Aktiengesellschaft: K+S resolves to return capital to shareholders of up to a total of EUR 391.4 million or about EUR 2 per share (Vara consensus estimate: EUR 1.50 per share).

S&P Global Ratings ("S&P") today informed K+S Aktiengesellschaft that the S&P Rating Committee has decided to improve the long-term credit rating of K+S Aktiengesellschaft from BB (stable outlook) to BB+ (positive outlook). This is not yet the formal change of the rating, as the rating action will only be finalized upon publication by S&P.

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K+S AG is raising its forecast for the expected EBITDA of the K+S Group for the current year to € 2.3 billion to € 2.6 billion (previously: € 1.6 billion to € 1.9 billion; previous year: € 969 million). The increase in the forecast is mainly based on further higher average prices in the Agriculture customer segment.

The K+S Group expects EBITDA for the 2022 financial year to range between EUR 1.6 billion and EUR 1.9 billion (2021: preliminary around EUR 960 million, including approximately EUR 220 million one-off effect from the REKS transaction). This forecast significantly exceeds the current market expectation (Vara 2022 consensus: EUR 1.269 billion). K+S will therefore more than double EBITDA compared to the figure of the previous year (adjusted for the effect from the REKS transaction).

Based on preliminary earnings figures for the K+S Group financial statements as of December 31, 2021, EBITDA of continuing operations amounts to approximately EUR 960 million (previous outlook 2021: EUR 830 million; Vara consensus: EUR 863 million; both including REKS transaction; previous year: EUR 266.9 million).

Today, the German Federal Cartel Office has granted the final approval for the merger of the new REKS joint venture. With this joint venture, K+S and REMEX, a subsidiary of the REMONDIS Group, aim to open up the attractive and rapidly growing European market for the recovery and disposal of waste as well as the realization of sustainable waste management solutions.

The German Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel e.V. (FREP - “DPR”) has today issued its final examination findings to K+S Aktiengesellschaft (“K+S”) in the procedure for the examination of the consolidated financial statements of K+S as of December 31, 2019, including the associated Group management report, as well as the abbreviated consolidated financial statements as of June 30, 2020, including the associated interim management report.

For the protection of the ongoing proceedings with the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (“FREP – DPR”) K+S Aktiengesellschaft ("K+S") decided to postpone the publication of the following insider information. With the upcoming regular reporting for the third quarter on November 11, 2021, K+S is obliged to make this announcement.

• K+S raises operating EBITDA outlook for 2021 again to around EUR 630 million (previously: EUR 500 to 600 million; excluding REKS transaction)
• Balanced free cash flow expected for 2021 (previously: EUR -180 million; excluding REKS transaction)
• Antitrust review of REKS transaction still ongoing