The invention relates to hydrophobic salts of layer-like metal hydroxides, which are obtainable by adding to a layer-like metal hydroxide salt, which contains trivalent, divalent and optionally monovalent metal cations and one or more organic anions A of the formula (1)X—R—Y (1),whereinX denotes hydrogen, hydroxyl, carboxyl, sulfato or sulfo;Y denotes carboxyl, sulfato or sulfo, andR denotes an aliphatic, cycloaliphatic, heterocycloaliphatic, olefinic, cycloolefinic, heterocycloolefinic, aromatic, heteroaromatic, araliphatic or heteroaraliphatic radical having 2 to 50 C atoms, wherein one or more substituents from the group consisting of hydroxyl, amino, halogen, C1-C22-alkyl, C1-C22-alkoxy, C1-C22-alkylene-(CO)—O—(CH2CH2O)0-50-alkyl, C1-C22-alkylene-(CO)—O—(CH2CH2O)0-50-haloalkyl, carboxyl, sulfo, nitro or cyano can be present,in dispersion, with intensive thorough mixing, one or more hydrophobic compounds from the group consisting of waxes and metal soaps in an amount of from 0.2 to 200 wt. %, based on the metal hydroxide salt, and optionally removing the liquid medium, drying the product and isolating it as a powder.