Mannheim, 14 July 2020 - The shareholders of CropEnergies AG, Mannheim, approved the doubling of the dividend to EUR 0.30 (previous year: EUR 0.15) per share entitled to dividend proposed by the supervisory board and executive board. The Annual General Meeting elected Dr Thomas Kirchberg (60) as a new member of the supervisory board. All other items on the agenda were also approved by the shareholders.
The Annual General Meeting took place in virtual form for the first time. A total of approximately 150 shareholders and guests watched the broadcast. A total of 83.64 percent of the share capital was represented. In the run-up to the event, approximately 60 questions were submitted, which the members of the executive board and the chairman of the supervisory board addressed in full, grouped by topic. In addition to questions about the past record year 2019/20, the shareholders were particularly interested in the effects of the corona pandemic on CropEnergies' business and the future development of the company. On 8 July 2020, CropEnergies presented its results for the 1st quarter of 2020/21, which were significantly better than originally expected.
At the end of the annual general meeting Joachim Lutz, CEO, will retire after 14 years on the CropEnergies executive board. The chairman of the supervisory board, Professor Dr Markwart Kunz, thanked Lutz: "Joachim Lutz has played a major role in shaping CropEnergies AG since 2006 and has played a decisive role in the development of the company into today's leading producer of renewable ethanol and neutral alcohol in Europe. For this we would like to express our deepest thanks to Mr. Lutz". Dr Stephan Meeder (49) will take over the position of spokesman of the executive board. Meeder has been CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of CropEnergies AG since 2015 and will continue to oversee this department in addition to his new duties as speaker.
Sustainable products from renewable biomass are the business of CropEnergies. Founded in Mannheim in 2006, the member of the Südzucker Group is the leading European producer of sustainably produced, renewable ethanol. With a production capacity of 1.3 million cubic metres of ethanol per year, CropEnergies produces neutral and technical alcohol (ethanol) for a wide range of applications at locations in Germany, Belgium, the UK and France: from climate-friendly fuel, beverage production or cosmetic products to pharmaceutical applications, for example as a basis for disinfectants and sanitizers or as a raw material for innovative biochemicals.
Thanks to highly efficient production plants, ethanol for fuel applications reduces CO2 emissions across the entire value chain by an average of over 70 percent compared to fossil fuels. In addition, more than 1 million tonnes per year of high-quality, protein-containing food and animal feed as well as biogenic carbon dioxide, which is used in beverage production, among other things, are produced from biomass. CropEnergies AG (ISIN DE000A0LAUP1) is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the regulated market (Prime Standard).