26 Notes to the cash flow statement

The cash flow statement provides an explanation of the changes in cash and cash equivalents. It is prepared on the basis of a comparison of the balance sheets at 1 January and 31 December. Changes that do not involve cash flows, such as changes in exchange rates, amortization, depreciation, impairment losses and transfers to other balance sheet items, are eliminated.

Changes in working capital due to the acquisition or disposal of consolidated companies are included under Investing activities.

The Consolidated cash flow statement includes an analysis of all cash flows in total, therefore including both continuing and discontinued operations. For the amounts related to discontinued operations split by activities and a reconciliation of results from continuing operations to total, see Note 3 Change in the scope of the consolidation.

Most of the changes in the cash flow statement can be traced back to the detailed statements of changes for the balance sheet items concerned. For those balance sheet items for which no detailed statement of changes is included, the table below shows the link between the change according to the balance sheet and the change according to the cash flow statement.

In 2021, the operating working capital continuing operations was €2,329 million (2020: €2,052 million), which amounts to 24.1% of annualized fourth-quarter net sales (2020: 24.6% continuing operations).

The disposal of subsidiaries, businesses and associates of €1,791 million consists of the cash impact of the divestment of Resins & Functional Materials (RFM) for €1,444 million, the sale of DSM’s share in AOC for €337 million, various earn-out payment receipts of €46 million and other, including costs of €3 million. Next to that, the divestment of RFM resulted in a tax expense of €70 million, of which €33 million was paid in 2021.