BayWa : 17.06.2014 BayWa AG: Dividend also increases for 2013 – Successful internationalisation continues to make progress

The BayWa shareholders will once again have a stake in BayWa's very successful 2013 business performance: the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders passed the resolution today to increase the dividend by €0.10 to €0.75 for the financial year 2013. "This increase means that in the past ten years, the BayWa AG dividend has more than tripled," said Chief Executive Officer Klaus Josef Lutz at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held at the Munich trade fair centre where more than 1,100 shareholders took part.

After performing well in 2012, BayWa managed to make further substantial gains in 2013, generating revenues of just under €16 billion (2012: €10.5 billion) and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of nearly €222 million (EBIT 2012: €186.8 million).

Lutz is also optimistic that BayWa can achieve a further noticeable increase in the operational result for 2014 as well. "BayWa's international expansion has made it more weatherproof in the truest sense of the word and less dependent on regional market developments. In the upcoming years, we aim to continue expanding and cementing our position in the relevant markets, especially internationally," Lutz confirmed in his speech. He noted that in 2013, for the first time in BayWa's history, more than 50% of revenues came from international holdings, mainly from agriculture companies Cefetra B.V. and Bohnhorst Agrarhandel GmbH acquired in 2012, as well as New Zealand fruit trading company Turners & Growers Limited.

In his speech, Lutz emphasised the challenges in international agriculture business. He noted that global procurement of agricultural commodities and the logistics of their distribution worldwide, such as for grain trading, are becoming increasingly important. In addition, "smart farming" is another one of the demands that BayWa has to face. According to Lutz, "Digital networking in agriculture − BayWa 3.0, so to speak − is right at the top of BayWa's business activities. We want to be equipped for it. In terms of smart farming, we aim to develop attractive business models that make sense, and potentially even doing so with partners who can complement our competences. It is extremely important that we cement and expand our previous advisory and service expertise with our customers in this way. For the Agricultural Trade business unit, we have plans for the strategic expansion of specialties such as peas and hops at the European level with a global focus," the CEO added.

BayWa is not only investing in international activities, however. According to Lutz, "We will constantly continue to modernise our sites in order to strengthen our competitive position." He noted that in 2013, BayWa invested €18 million in its agricultural sites alone. There are planned investments of €25 million for such sites in 2014.

According to Lutz, there is no way of avoiding BayWa's further internationalisation to make the company competitive for the future. He noted that this also applies to the field of renewable energies. "From the outset, we did not just commit ourselves to Germany, but also invested in companies in Europe and the United States which are already very successful," Lutz explained.

He noted that in global terms, there is no stopping the increasing market importance of renewable energies − all signs point to growth. "There is no turning back," Lutz confirmed. Unfortunately, Germany has so far failed to offer any adequate prospects as regards planning reliability, owing to the fact that "for a few years now, Germany's governments have resembled a ship that finds itself zigzagging. The travel coordinates keep changing and the radio messages being given are partially contradictory. Among other things, this state of affairs has contributed to an increase of coal power in Germany and resulted in taking each climate target ad absurdum," according to Lutz.

Lutz called for further significant improvements to be made to the draft of the EEG (German Renewable Energy Sources Act) reform. He cited the example of the planned EEG levy, which is set much too high, on self-generated solar electricity. The levy would make commercially operating a photovoltaic system completely unprofitable for most − from traders to the owners of blocks of flats. "The energy transition will fail if virtually no one is willing to take part because it does not pay off," Lutz emphasised.

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