Mannheim, 13 July 2021 – At today's Annual General Meeting of CropEnergies AG, Mannheim, the shareholders approved by a large majority the proposal of the supervisory board and executive board to increase the dividend to EUR 0.35 (previous year: EUR 0.30) per share entitled to dividend. This results in a total dividend payout of EUR 30.5 million. All other agenda items were also approved with a majority of over 89 percent.
Due to the pandemic, the Annual General Meeting was again held in virtual form. A total of more than 160 shareholders and guests watched the webcast held in the Rosengarten in Mannheim. This means that 84 percent of the share capital was represented.
In advance of the Annual General Meeting, over 70 questions had been submitted, which the executive board members and the chairman of the supervisory board answered entirely and grouped by topic. In addition to the past financial year and the effects of the corona pandemic, the shareholders were particularly interested in the new corporate strategy and the development in the current financial year. CropEnergies had presented the results for the 1st quarter 2021/22 on 07 July 2021. Revenues and earnings had increased significantly compared to the previous year.
Dr. Stephan Meeder, CEO, presented the strategic development and the future plans of CropEnergies Group in detail. Among other things, he presented a cooperation with the French-German Institute for Environmental Technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken. CropEnergies has commissioned the Institute to conduct a feasibility study to see if the BEST-procedure developed by Prof. Dr. Matthias Brunner can be scaled up to industrial scale. BEST stands for BioEnergySTorage. In this biotechnological process, microorganisms convert CO2 very efficiently into methane using hydrogen that was generated from renewable energy. This can be produced in natural gas quality, i.e. as synthetic natural gas it can replace fossil natural gas 1:1 and can therefore be used directly on site or fed into the existing grid. If the feasibility study comes to a positive conclusion, the next step will be to examine the integration of such a process in one of the existing biorefineries of CropEnergies Group.
CropEnergies AG
Sustainable, renewable products made from biomass – that is what CropEnergies stands for. Our products contribute to a climate-friendly world and ensure that fossil carbons remain in the ground permanently and do not continue to drive climate change.
Founded in Mannheim in 2006, the member of the Südzucker Group is the leading European producer of renewable ethanol. With a production capacity of 1.3 million m3 of ethanol per year, CropEnergies produces neutral alcohol as well as technical alcohol (ethanol) for a wide range of applications at locations in Germany, Belgium, the UK, and France: Sustainably produced ethanol as a petrol substitute is an answer to the future challenges of climate-friendly energy supply in the transport sector. Thanks to highly efficient production plants, our ethanol reduces CO2 emissions by an average of more than 70% across the entire value chain compared to fossil fuel. Our high-quality alcohol is also used in beverage production, cosmetics, pharmaceutical applications, for example as a basis for disinfectants, or as a raw material for innovative biochemicals.
Equally important are the resulting protein food and animal feed products as a sustainable regional alternative to emission-intensive protein imports from overseas, as well as biogenic carbon dioxide. It is used in beverage production, among other things, and will be a valuable raw material for a wide range of applications in transport and industry in the future. Thus, all raw material components are utilised in our circular economy.
CropEnergies AG (ISIN DE000A0LAUP1) is listed on the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.