Mannheim, 23 September 2013 - In the 1st half of the financial year 2013/14 (1 March 2013 - 31 August 2013), CropEnergies AG, Mannheim, increased revenues by 16 percent compared to the previous year to EUR 372 (previous year: 320) million.
An important factor for the growth in revenues was the higher sales volume of bioethanol especially due to the increase in trading volumes. In addition, higher earnings for bioethanol and high protein food and animal feed products accounted for the growth.
As expected, EBITDA was lower than in the previous year due to higher raw material costs. With EUR 42 (previous year: 53) million the decrease amounted to 21 percent. In the same period of the previous year, the early and cost-efficient hedging of raw materials stood against increasing revenues for food and animal feed products. Including the one-time costs for flooding damages in Zeitz and the additional maintenance work the operating profit decreased by 30 percent to EUR 26 (previous year: 37) million.
CropEnergies confirms the growth target for revenues of 10 to 20 percent for the full financial year 2013/14. This is mainly due to the acquisition of Ensus Limited, UK, and the thus increasing production and sales volumes. Currently, final cleaning and optimisation works are being carried out in order to commission the plant in Wilton. For the full financial year 2013/14 CropEnergies unchangingly expects an operating profit between EUR 40 and 50 (previous year: 87) million.