Energiekontor : achieves good half-year results 2017

On-target business performance of wind and solar project developer

Energiekontor AG achieves good half-year results 2017

Bremen, 31 August 2017. Energiekontor AG closed the first half of the 2017 financial year with group revenue of EUR 41.4 million (previous year: EUR 43.3 million) and total output of EUR 82.4 million (previous year: EUR 55.6 million). Group EBIT was EUR 13.2 million in the first half of 2017 (previous year: EUR 14.2 million), and income from ordinary activities (EBT) came in at EUR 4.4 million (previous year: EUR 4.8 million). Earnings per share in the first six months of the current financial year amounted to EUR 0.22 (previous year: EUR 0.23).

In addition to regular revenue from the operation of Group-owned wind farms, the commissioning and sale of the two single turbines Klein Woltersdorf (2.4 MW) and Briest III (3.2 MW) also made a major contribution to the half-year results. Two more single turbines were completed in the period under review, but their sale will only benefit earnings in the second half of the year.

"As the larger earnings share is usually generated in the second half of the year in the wind energy sector, the results of the first half-year cannot be extrapolated to the full year," Peter Szabo, CEO of Energiekontor AG, explained. "While wind regimes have remained below average across all locations, we are quite content with the course of the financial year to date," continued Szabo. "If we manage to complete all projects currently under construction by the end of the year and were also to complete their sale, our year-end result could still be in a similar range to the two previous years. Energiekontor plans, however, to include a major share of these projects in its Group-owned wind farm portfolio, which means that 2017 earnings will be significantly below the previous year's result because potential profit margins remain unused as hidden reserves in plant and equipment."

With regard to the results of the onshore wind auctions in Germany, Szabo added: "We believe that the special provision of citizens' energy initiatives being allowed to submit their application before receiving the required permission has led to a certain distortion of competition in the first two auction rounds. In our opinion, it will not be until next year, when equal conditions apply to all market participants and the special provision for citizens' energy initiatives will be abolished, that the price structure should stabilise again at a low level. Prices are very low already, which will present the entire sector with major economic challenges in 2018 and thereafter at all value creation stages of project realisation. At the same time, such change processes will also generate market opportunities, which we intend to use. That being said, it remains Energiekontor's goal to take on a pioneering role in the market for renewable energy as price leader with regard to levelized cost of electricity and to be able to realise all of our projects without any subsidies in the medium term. This is already the case today in areas with strong wind and big sites for wind farms such as Scotland. In the field of solar power, too, large sites with high global radiation already have the potential to generate electricity in direct competition with conventional sources of energy. In addition to implementing various efficiency measures in our core market of Germany, we are therefore concentrating on expanding our activities in the Netherlands, the US and France."

The complete half-year report for 2017 is available online at https://www.energiekontor.de/en/investor-relations/financial-reports.html.

About Energiekontor AG:

For the last 25 years, Energiekontor has stood for a sound approach to business and a wealth of experience in wind power. Formed in Bremerhaven in 1990, the Company was one of the pioneers in the industry and is now one of the leading German project developers. Its core business covers the planning, construction and operational management of wind farms in Germany and abroad, and was expanded to include solar power in 2010. Energiekontor also currently owns and operates 31 wind farms with a total rated power of around 238 megawatts.

In addition to its headquarters in Bremen, Energiekontor also maintains offices in Bremerhaven, Hagen im Bremischen, Aachen, Bernau (near Berlin) and Dortmund. The Company also has branch offices in England (Leeds), Scotland (Glasgow), Portugal (Lisbon) and the Netherlands (Nijmegen). The formation of additional branch offices in the US and France is currently in the pipeline. An impressive track record since the Company was founded: 111 realised wind farms with around 600 turbines and total rated power of just under 900 megawatt. This corresponds to an investment volume of more than EUR 1.4 billion.

Energiekontor went public on 25 May 2000. The shares of Energiekontor AG (WKN 531350/ISIN DE0005313506) are listed in the General Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and can be traded on all German stock exchanges.
 

Contact:

Investor Relations/Press
Dr Stefan Eckhoff
Phone: (+49-421) 3304-0
Email: ir@energiekontor.de

Energiekontor AG / Reuters: EKT / ISIN: DE0005313506