DGAP-News: Huge investments in farmland and state-of-the-art biogas plants put KTG Agrar in excellent position for the future
(firmenpresse) - DGAP-News: KTG Agrar AG / Key word(s): Preliminary Results
Huge investments in farmland and state-of-the-art biogas plants put
KTG Agrar in excellent position for the future
08.05.2012 / 08:30
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Huge investments in farmland and state-of-the-art biogas plants put KTG
Agrar in excellent position for the future
- Investments of the past years increasingly bearing fruit
- Total output passes the EUR 100 million for the first time
- EBIT up from EUR 13.4 million to EUR 15.1 million
- Targets for 2012 and 2013: Continued earnings growth and positive cash
flows
Hamburg, 8 May 2012 - The year 2011 saw KTG Agrar AG (ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4)
make huge investments in farmland, a resource in short global supply, and
state-of-the-art biogas plants, which have laid the foundation for high
earnings and positive cash flows in the coming years. KTG Agrar not only
made investments but also continued its profitable operational growth;
according to preliminary figures, total output rose by 58 percent from EUR
70.8 million to EUR 112.2 million, passing the EUR 100 million mark for the
first time ever. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortisation (EBITDA) increased from EUR 17.6 million to EUR 20.4 million.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) climbed from EUR 13.4 million to
EUR 15.1 million. Shareholders stand to benefit from this profitable
growth, as the company will propose a 20 percent dividend increase to EUR
0.18 at the upcoming Annual General Meeting.
'We have again been able to reconcile the conflicting demands of profitable
growth and massive investments in the future,' said Siegfried Hofreiter,
CEO of KTG Agrar AG. '2011 was a year of successful capital spending,
making it an excellent basis for growing profits in the future.' KTG Agrar
expanded its farmland by 2,500 hectares to roughly 35,000 hectares in 2011.
The company currently owns some 8,000 hectares of this land, which makes it
one of Europe's leading players in terms of farmland ownership. KTG Agrar
also pushed ahead its biogas activities in 2011, when production capacity
was doubled from 11 to 22 megawatts (MW). In the meantime, as much as 30 MW
has been connected to the grid, with another 10 MW in the planning or
construction stage. This means that KTG Agrar is ideally positioned to
benefit from the mega trend of population growth and the change in energy
policy. In 2011, the global population passed the magical 7 billion mark,
which will lead to a further increase in demand for agricultural
commodities. The change in energy policy makes state-of-the-art biogas
plants for the production of clean energy virtually indispensable. 'Biogas
can meet both baseload and peak load requirements, making it an important
element of the energy mix of the future. We have consistently expanded our
capacity since 2006 and are one of the top three energy producers in the
German biogas sector and also among the leading global players,' said Dr.
Thomas Berger, KTG Board member in charge of the biogas segment.
Moreover, KTG Agrar has begun to extend its value chain into the food
market; in spring 2011, the company took over Frenzel Tiefkühlkost,
Ringleben/Thuringia, and built up a food segment. Says Siegfried Hofreiter:
'The integration of Frenzel has been completed successfully in the
meantime, and we expect the food segment to break even this year already.'
Targets for 2012 + 2013: Profitable growth and structural optimisation
Following the huge investments in farmland, biogas plants and new business
segments in 2010 and 2011, KTG Agrar will reap the harvest in 2012 and
2013. Having grown strongly over the past years, the company will optimise
the processes in all business segments, thus making an important
contribution to a clearly positive cash flow. 'The confidence placed in us
by the capital market - for which I would like to express my sincere thanks
- has given us the opportunity to make huge investments in the scarce
resource that is farmland as well as in state-of-the-art biogas plants. As
a result, we now have hidden reserves which clearly exceed our current
market value. We are therefore checking ways of realising them partly,'
said Siegfried Hofreiter. KTG currently owns about 8,000 hectares of
farmland in east Germany and Lithuania. In accordance with the German
Commercial Code, this farmland is recognised at cost and does not at all
reflect the present market value. KTG Agrar has also invested heavily in
the production of renewable energy since 2007. The success of these
investments is not least reflected in the fact that the company meanwhile
operates biogas plants with an electrical output of roughly 30 MW - which
would be enough to supply 200.000 households with green energy 24/7 for.
KTG Agrar's revenues from the sale of clean energy exceeded EUR 21.0
million in 2011 (2010: EUR 14.2 million). In this context, it should be
noted that several new plants were connected to the grid only towards the
end of 2011 and the first few months of the current year, which means that
they will not make contributions to sales revenues and earnings before
2012.
The full consolidated financial statements and the 2011 Annual Report will
be published in the coming weeks.
About KTG Agrar:
With cultivable land of around 35,000 hectares, KTG Agrar AG (ISIN:
DE000A0DN1J4) is one of the leading producers of agricultural commodities
in Europe. As an integrated supplier, the company produces agricultural
commodities and renewable energy and food. The Hamburg-based company's core
area of expertise is the organic and traditional cultivation of market
products such as cereals, maize and rapeseed. For organic market products
KTG Agrar is the European market leader. The company mainly produces in
Germany but has also operated production in the EU member state of
Lithuania since 2005. The company's third mainstay is the production of
bio-energy. At present, KTG Agrar operates biogas plants with a total
capacity of around 30 megawatts. As a result of the takeover of Frenzel
Tiefkühlkost in 2011, KTG has expanded the value chain by the production of
food. In the year 2011, KTG achieved a total output of EUR 112,1 million
and EBIT of EUR 15,1 million. Since November 2007 the company is listed on
the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and has currently about 600 employees. Further
information can be found at www.ktg.ag.
Contact:
Investor Relations / Press
Fabian Lorenz
IR.on AG
Phone: +49 221 914097 - 6
E-mail: fabian.lorenz(at)ir-on.com
End of Corporate News
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08.05.2012 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
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Language: English
Company: KTG Agrar AG
Ferdinandstr. 12
20095 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40-303 76-47Fax: +49 (0)40-303 76-799
E-mail: presse(at)ktg-agrar.de
Internet: www.ktg-agrar.de
ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4
WKN: A0DN1J
Indices: HASPAX
Listed: Freiverkehr in Berlin, Düsseldorf, München, Stuttgart;
Open Market (Entry Standard) in Frankfurt
End of News DGAP News-Service
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Datum: 08.05.2012 - 08:30 Uhr
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