DGAP-News

VERBUND AG: VERBUND's annual results for 2016: encouraging income trend despite challenging environment - Seite 2

outstanding issues relating to gas deliveries for the Mellach combined
cycle gas turbine power plant as well as from the settlement of all
outstanding issues arising from the agreement to supply district heating
from the Mellach power plants site. The most significant non-recurring
expense was the impairment loss recognised on the Romanian wind farms.
After adjusting for these non-recurring effects, EBITDA increased by 6.6%
to EUR894.5m despite the continued market-related decline in sales prices.
The adjusted Group result even climbed by 21.2% to EUR325.9m. The
improvement was primarily due to the increase of seven percentage points in
the water supply compared with the prior year, a substantial improvement in
the results of our thermal operations, higher earnings in the Grid segment,
the Group-wide programme to reduce costs and
increase efficiency and a reduction in interest expense.

Dividend for 2016

At the Annual General Meeting on 5 April 2017, we plan to propose a
dividend of EUR0.29 per share for financial year 2016. The payout ratio
will thus amount to 30.9% based on the adjusted Group result.

Outlook for 2017

On the basis of average own generation from hydropower and wind, we expect
EBITDA to amount to around EUR800m and the Group result to around EUR280m
in financial year 2017.

KPIs	Unit	2015	2016	Change
Revenue	EURm	2,969.6	2,795.9	-5.9%
EBITDA	EURm	888.7	1,044.2	17.5%
Operating result	EURm	410.6	615.1	49.8%
Group result	EURm	207.7	424.4	104.3%
Earnings per share	EUR	0.60	1.22	104.3%
EBIT margin	%	13.8	22.0	-
EBITDA margin	%	29.9	37.3	-
Cash flow from
operating activities	EURm	674.0	804.3	19.3%
Free cash flow
before dividends	EURm	551.4	580.7	5.3%
Net Debt/ EBITDA	X	4.1	3.1	-25.6%
Proposed) dividend
per share	EUR	0.35	0.29	-17.1%
Scope 1 emissions
(direct emissions)	kt CO2e	1,737.1	1,007.0	-42.0%

Specific GHG