Mannheim, 10 April 2015 - The revenues of CropEnergies AG, Mannheim, increased to EUR 827 million (previous year: EUR 781 million) in the financial year 2014/15 (1 March 2014 to 28 February 2015). As expected, operating profit fell significantly and reached EUR -11 million (previous year: EUR 35 million).
The temporary standstill of the production site in Wilton, UK, which was announced in February 2014, led to restructuring costs and special items of EUR -28 million. In addition to this, there will be one-time costs of EUR 9 million from the depreciation of deferred tax assets. The result after taxes for the full financial year 2014/15 will therefore be negative.
In the context of quarterly reporting, CropEnergies had already drawn attention to the anticipated difficult market conditions in the 1st half of the financial year 2015/16. Even though the ethanol prices in the EU have increased in the last few weeks, there are still doubts about the sustainability of the current price level. Against this background, CropEnergies expects an operating profit in the range of EUR minus 20 to EUR plus 10 million for the financial year 2015/16. In addition, there will be extraordinary expenses of up to EUR 15 million annually during the standstill of the bioethanol plant in Wilton.
CropEnergies continues to assume that the decision of the EU expected for April 2015 will lead to positive impulses for the European bioethanol market in the mid term through an increase of blending quotas and the introduction of E10 in additional member states. This should lead to an improvement in the revenues and earnings situation of bioethanol producers in Europe.
The full annual report for the financial year 2014/15 with additional information about the forecast for the financial year 2015/16 will be published on 19 May 2015.