AGRANA — Report on the First Quarter of the 2002/03 Financial Year

AGRANA remains firmly on track

Date: 17.07.2002

AGRANA remains firmly on track
AGRANA’s results during the first quarter of the current group financial year from 1 March through 31 May 2002 were up on the same period of the previous year. Revenues increased by 25 per cent, operating profit doubled from € 12.1 million to € 26.5 million, and consolidated profit increased by € 10.9 million to € 17.8 million.

Half of that healthy growth was attributable to a one-off effect:

During the current 2002/03 financial year, the balance-sheet dates of all the companies within AGRANA International will be moved from the end of the calendar year to the group balance-sheet date, which is the last day of February. As a result, the first quarter of this financial year consisted of five months in the case of the AGRANA International subsidiaries (from 1 January through 31 May), and three months, as before, in the case of our subsidiaries in Austria (from 1 March through 31 May).

Our figures for the first quarter of the current financial year:

 

in m€ 1st Quarter 2002/03 1st Quarter 2001/02 +/(-) change
m€
Revenues 245,9 196,4 + 49,5
Operating profit 26,5 12,1 + 14,4
Profit before tax 26,8 10,1 + 16,7
Consolidated profit 17,8 6,9 + 10,9
Investments in tangible non-current assets during Q1 8,0 6,5 +   1,5
Investments in tangible non-current assets during year planned: 49,7 planned 23,0 + 26,7
Staff 3.672 4.141 -  469

Outlook for the 2002/03 financial year
Consolidated revenues are likely to be static on the year at roughly € 842 million, but we expect our profits to grow. That will be partly due to the 2-month prolongation of the accounting periods of our subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe, but half of the increase will be the result of rationalizations carried out in Central and Eastern Europe.