Business development of the Bremen project planner according to plan in the first half of 2019
Bremen, August 30, 2019: Energiekontor AG closed the first half of 2019 at group level with sales of € 36.3 million (previous year € 32.9 million) and a total operating performance of € 44.3 million (previous year € 58.7 million). Group EBIT of € 11.2 million (previous year € 12.4 million) was slightly below the level of the previous year, the result from ordinary activities (EBT) of € 4.7 million (previous year € 4.7 million) was just a touch higher. Earnings per share in the first half of 2019 amounted to € 0.23, as in the same period of the previous year.
The positive result is primarily attributable to the contribution from the "Power generation in Group-owned wind and solar parks" segment. A good wind year to date and the additional contribution of the wind and solar parks, which were transferred to the Group's own portfolio, did not lead to a significant increase in sales compared with the same period of the previous year, as there was a one-off special remuneration of around € 3 million in the UK in 2018. As expected, the "Business Development, Innovation and Other" segment recorded a slight increase in revenue.
Peter Szabo, CEO of Energiekontor AG, comments: "Overall, the half-year result is in line with expectations. Since the course of business so far has largely gone according to plan, we have no reason to change the outlook for the year as a whole. The general conditions are and will remain challenging, so that we continue to expect a transition year for 2019. From 2020, our prospects will brighten significantly if our diversification strategy takes effect. We are pressing ahead with the expansion of our international presence and our commitment to solar parks."
The project pipeline at home and abroad is being continuously expanded and has meanwhile reached a potential capacity of approx. 4,000 MW. Projects based on PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) are playing an increasingly important role in this pipeline. As is well known in the market, Energiekontor wants to play a pioneering role in the industry and be one of the first to realise wind and solar parks with electricity production costs that are lower than those of the conventional energy industry. After Energiekontor was the first company in the UK to build a PPA-based wind farm and connect it to the grid, Energiekontor also signed two such contracts in the first half of 2019 for projects planned in Germany. "We assume that further PPAs in the solar sector will be concluded in the current year and that PPAs will also establish themselves as the standard in Germany in the coming years," says Peter Szabo.
The complete Half-Year Report 2019 is available on the Internet at: https://www.energiekontor.de/investor-relations/finanzberichte.html