AGRANA PRESENTS OUTSTANDING RESULTS FOR 2000/01

GROWTH IN EVERY SEGMENT

Date: 13.06.2001

GROWTH IN EVERY SEGMENT -

Increases of

  • 8.1 percent in consolidated revenues
  • 42 percent in EBIT
  • 71 percent in net profit for the year
  • 70 percent in cash flow

AGRANA is determined to remain on course at its new level of earnings.

AGRANA Beteiligungs-AG’s revenues passed the 10-billion- Austrian schilling mark during the 2000/01 financial year (1 March 2000 through 28 February 2001), doubling consolidated revenues since AGRANA was founded in 1988.

Consolidated revenues increased by 8.1 percent on the year to € 760.2 million/ATS 10.461 billion (previous year: € 703.0 million/ATS 9.673 billion). Roughly € 43.6 million of that increase resulted from sales in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and some € 7.3 million was generated by the starch segment in Austria.

As CEO Johann Marihart reported at today’s press conference in Vienna, "this new dimension in earnings has been made possible by steady growth combined with systematic structuring of the Group to create efficient units and a streamlined Group management".

AGRANA’s EBIT grew by 42 percent to € 66.7 million (previous year: € 47.0 million) and net profit for the year increased by 71 percent to € 37.6 million (previous year: € 22.0 million). The Group’s subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe accounted for just one third of consolidated revenues but nearly half of EBIT. Restructuring and rationalization in those countries (which was modelled on the Group’s operations in Austria and carried out with a view to forthcoming entry into the EU) unleashed the extensive synergies that made the Group’s surge in performance possible.

As a result, AGRANA’s EBIT margin rose from 6.7 percent in 1999/2000 to 8.8 percent in the 2000/01 financial year, and its ROCE rose from 9.8 percent to 12.8 percent.

Cash flow totalled € 98.7 million (previous year: € 58.2 million), or 13 percent of revenues, which was more than double the volume of investments during 2000/01.

The world market price of sugar recovered from its 15-year low in 1999/2000, making an significant contribution to the Group’s success during 2000/01 alongside further improvements in results in the Austrian and Hungarian starch segments and, above all, the healthy development of sugar operations in the Czech and Hungarian markets.

AGRANA’s strategy for Eastern Europe is thus paying off in full, yielding all the expected benefits.

The Austrian Starch Division is also making a sustained contribution to consolidated results based on growth, specialization in niche markets and the expansion that will be made possible by the enlargement of the maize starch factory in Aschach/Upper Austria (new capacities will go online in the summer of 2001). Investments in increasing capacities at Aschach totalled roughly € 22 million/ATS 300 million.

Pursuing a Group strategy focused on strengthening the Starch Division and extending sugar operations to include Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. the candidates for future EU membership), AGRANA has succeeded in reinforcing and broadening its earning power, which for many years depended solely on sugar operations within Austria.

The current financial year — 2001/02
The present sugar-market regime was to have expired on 30 June 2001, but on 22 May 2001 it was extended to the end of June 2006. The self financed storage refund system has been abolished, reducing spending in the EU budget by roughly € 300 million but at the same time denting EU budget revenues by the same amount. The decision to extend the sugar-market regime for five years will allow its harmonization with Agenda 2000, the EBA initiative (Everything But Arms) and WTO-negotiations. In the final analysis, the extension will also create an unambiguous basis for the setting of sugar quotas for CEE countries during EU accession negotiations (and thus also for AGRANA’s sugar subsidiaries in the CEE region).

AGRANA’s Sugar Division again increased areas under sugar beet for the 2001 growing season, namely from 43,000 and 45,000 hectares, and it has signed the necessary contracts with some 10,300 growers. Potato starch contracts have been concluded with 2,270 farmers to buy 222,900 metric tons of potatoes for the starch industry (previous year: 214,900 metric tons). Some 15,000 metric tons of organic potatoes and potatoes for the food industry will be purchased to make long-life potato products and the AGRANA Starch Division’s successful line of organic products.

Starch sales during the first two months of the current financial year were up on the same period of 2000/01.

Sugar sales up to the end of April 2001 totalled 75,900 metric tons, exceeding the previous year’s figure of 73.600 metric tons. Domestic sales to private consumers (packet goods) have recovered slightly since 2000/01, and sales to the drinks industry are likewise nearly 12 percent up on the year.

Contracted beet volumes in Central and Eastern Europe have been raised considerably for the 2001 growing season, the only exception being Slovakia, where there has been a small reduction. Contracts have been signed for sugar beet deliveries totalling 2,650,000 metric tons in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

In April, the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Slovakia’s Cukrovar Nova a.s. and Gemercukor a.s. resolved to merge the two companies to form Slovenské Cukrovary a.s. with effect from 30 June 2001.

The declaration of a dividend for the 2000/01 financial year of € 1.09 per non-par-value share (Stückaktie) will be recommended to the General Meeting of Shareholders of Agrana Beteiligungs-AG on 6 July 2001. That would result in the distribution of € 12.02 million on a total of 11,027,040 non-par-value shares.

Outlook
Events so far this year make stable full-year revenues and profits seem likely.

AGRANA attained a new level of performance during 2000/01. The Board of Management will be making every effort to ensure that it can be sustained during the current financial year.

 


The AGRANA Group — Key Data
Euros (€)

2000/01
IAS
1999/00
IAS
1998/99
IAS
1997/98
RLG
1996/97
RLG
CORPORATE DATA

Revenues

Mio. € 760.2 703.0 684.6 580.9 552.0
EBIT Mio. € 66.7 47.0 42.2 29.1 27.5
Profit before income taxes Mio. € 51.2 28.0 26.4
Profit from ordinary activities Mio. € 31.6 27.2
Net profit for the year Mio. € 37.6 22.0 15.3 32.0 20.9
Cash flow from profit (IAS) Mio. € 98.7 58.2
Cash flow from profit (RLG) Mio. €
60.8 65.0 55.3
Investments Mio. € 38.1 24.4 37.9 42.3 57.0
Staff 4,753 5,290 4,506 2,555 2,812
EBIT-Margin in % 8.8 6.7 6.2 5.0 5.0
ROS (Return on Sale) in % 6.7 4.0 3.9 5.4 4.9
Equity Ratio in % 44.6 41.4 36.8 42.5 41.4


Austrian schillings (ATS)

 

2000/01
IAS
1999/00
IAS
1998/99
IAS
1997/98
RLG
1996/97
RLG
CORPORATE DATA

Revenues

ATS mn 10,461 9,673 9,420 7,993 7,596
EBIT ATS mn 918 647 581 400 378
Profit before income taxes ATS mn 705 385 363
Profit from ordinary activities ATS mn 434 374
Net profit for the year ATS mn 518 303

211

440 287
Cash flow from profit (IAS) ATS mn 1,358 801
Cashflow from Profit (RLG) ATS mn
836 895 761
Investments ATS mn 526 335 521 582 784
Staff 4,753 5,290 4,506 2,555 2,812
EBIT-Margin in % 8.8 6.7 6.2 5.0 5.0
ROS (Return on Sale) in % 6.7 4.0 3.9 5.4 4.9
Equity Ratio in % 44.6 41.4 36.8 42.5 41.4

 

AGRANA-Financial Calendar (provisional)

 

General Meeting of Shareholders 6 July 2001
Dividend ex-day and payday 10 July 2001
Publication of results for Q1 2001 - 2002 26 July 2001
Publication of results for H1 2001- 2002 19 October 2001
Gewinn Fair 18 - 21 October 2001
Publication of results for Q3 2001 - 2002 25 January 2001