DGAP-News

Significant production increase at CropEnergies in first nine months of business year - Operating loss despite revenue growth

DGAP-News: CropEnergies AG / Key word(s): 9-month figures
Significant production increase at CropEnergies in first nine months
of business year - Operating loss despite revenue growth

12.01.2015 / 07:00

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Mannheim, 12 January 2015 - The revenues of CropEnergies AG, Mannheim,
increased by 9.4 percent compared to the previous year to EUR 626 (previous
year: 573) million in the first three quarters of the financial year
2014/15. Besides the significantly increased production, the expansion of
the trading activities also contributed to the growth.

EBITDA decreased to EUR 21 (previous year: 62) million. After
depreciation,this resulted in an operating loss of EUR -6 (previous year:
38) million. The main reason for the significant reduction in earnings was
the slump in bioethanol prices in Europe compared to the previous year .
Bioethanol prices fell from EUR 515 per cubic meter at the end of November
2013 to EUR 447 per cubic meter at the end of November 2014. They had
reached a low of EUR 434 on 22 July 2014. Aside from the low prices in the
European bioethanol market, lower earnings for food and animal feed
products also contributed to the reduction of earnings. Even though the raw
material cost decreased compared to the previous year, this could only
partially offset the significant drop in sales prices.

CropEnergies increased bioethanol production by 24 percent to 777,000 cubic
meters in the reporting period and for the first time produced more than
300,000 cubic meters in a quarter. The volume of food and animal feed
products also significantly increased. The growth in bioethanol production
is mainly due to a better utilization of the plant in Wilton, UK, after it
was commissioned in the 3rd quarter of the previous year with an initially
reduced capacity utilization.

In Zeitz, Germany, the construction of a new plant for the production of up
to 60,000 cubic meters of high quality neutral alcohol per year is almost
complete. The remaining tasks will be finished in the next few weeks so the
plant can be commissioned at the beginning of 2015. With the neutral
alcohol plant, CropEnergies will tap additional attractive market outlets
in traditional market segments (e.g. beverage, cosmetics, pharmaceutical
and chemical industry) in which the CropEnergies group is already active
through Ryssen Alcools SAS. CropEnergies has invested EUR 27 million in the
expansion of the Zeitz production site.