Dividend proposal of € 0.77 per share for the 2019|20 financial year
Ad-Hoc Date: 22.04.2020The Management Board of AGRANA Beteiligungs-AG has today decided to propose a dividend payout in the amount of € 0.77 per share for the 2019|20 financial year (dividend for 2018|19: € 1.00 per share) to the 33rd Annual General Meeting to be held on 3 July 2020.
AGRANA remains essentially committed to a predictable, reliable and transparent dividend policy that is geared to continuity. The dividend is guided by earnings as well as cash flow and the debt position of the Group in the past financial year, but also takes into account current events and forecasts of future business development.
According to preliminary figures, AGRANA achieved an operating result (EBIT) as forecast of € 87.1 million in its 2019|20 financial year (1 March 2019 to 29 February 2020), significantly higher than that of the prior year (2018|19: € 66.6 million). Group revenue amounted to € 2,480.7 million (2018|19: € 2,443.0 million).
As at 22 April 2020, the guidance for the 2020|21 financial year is subject to the currently unforeseeable business and financial impacts, as well as the duration, of the COVID-19 pandemic. In view of the dynamic nature of the pandemic, assumptions about its economic and financial impacts would be largely speculative. On the basis of the forecasts prepared before the incidence of COVID-19, the AGRANA Group anticipated a significant increase (of between ten and 50 percent) in consolidated EBIT. Although negative impacts of COVID-19 are expected on revenue and EBIT in all segments, it is not yet possible to sufficiently quantify these.
The publication of the Annual Report 2019|20, in addition to all of the details relating to the annual results for 2019|20 and the outlook for 2020|21, will take place as scheduled on 7 May 2020.