Bremen, April 10, 2019: As early predicted, the 2018 financial year proved to be a difficult transitional year for Energiekontor AG and the entire wind industry. The consolidated earnings for 2018 was in line with expectations, taking into account the increased number of Group-owned wind and solar parks. Consolidated earnings before taxes (EBT) amounted to € 9.6 million (previous year: € 16.7 million), consolidated earnings for the year amounted to € 6.7 million (previous year: € 11.9 million). Group sales of € 110.2 million in the year under review were well below the previous year (€ 149.9 million). This is mainly due to the reduced project implementations in the "Project Planning and Sales (Wind, Solar)" segment, which decreased by € 44.0 million to € 53.4 million, while revenues in the "Business Development, Innovation and Other" segment remained constant at € 3.7 million and revenues in the "Power Generation in Group-owned Wind and Solar Parks" segment increased by € 4.3 million to € 53.4 million.
At the AG level, Energiekontor generated a net profit of € 6.6 million (previous year: € 15.5 million). Due to the very good long-term prospects of the company, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of € 0.40 per share at the Annual General Meeting on May 22, 2019.
"The significantly lower result compared to the previous year is mainly due to the fact that we were able to realise unusually few projects in the past financial year with four wind parks and one solar park," explains Peter Szabo, CEO of Energiekontor AG. The main reason for this development was the tendering procedure for onshore wind turbines introduced in Germany in 2017, which led to massive distortion of competition and misconduct in the first tender rounds due to the preferential treatment of so-called citizen energy companies, and to a delay in the realisation of numerous projects originally planned for 2018 due to necessary rescheduling.
With the addition of a British wind farm and a domestic solar farm to the company's own portfolio, Energiekontor remained true to its growth strategy, which provides for the continued expansion of the Group's own wind and solar park portfolio, even if this expansion of hidden reserves is detrimental to the annual result.
The progress made in the development of the project pipeline in the various country markets and target regions is also hardly reflected in the 2018 business figures. In addition, Energiekontor has been able to enormously improve the profitability of most projects through a large number of measures and is increasingly planning to implement projects without state support solely on the basis of long-term power purchase agreements, so-called PPAs. Energiekontor has been successfully relying on PPAs in Great Britain for many years and plans to do so in all other target markets in the future. Following this strategy, Energiekontor was able to announce the first conclusion of a PPA in Germany for a subsidy-free solar project with an installed capacity of around 85 megawatts in mid-February 2019. This underlines the Company's pioneering role in implementing projects in direct competition with conventional power plants. The realisation of non-subsidised projects will be the first step towards the medium-term realisation of wind and solar parks with electricity production costs below those of coal and nuclear power plants.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Withernwick II wind farm was connected to the grid with an output of 8.2 MWp. This is another important milestone for Energiekontor as it is the first subsidy-free wind farm project in the UK.
The scope of the project pipeline was also significantly expanded in 2018. In particular, the expansion of projects in Scotland and the USA, which are at various stages of development, will make foreign markets increasingly important in the medium term. In total, the project pipeline was expanded last year by around 800 MW to 3,800 MW.
For the 2019 financial year, Energiekontor anticipates that the challenging environment will continue and that consolidated EBT will increase moderately compared with the previous year.
From 2020 onwards, Energiekontor expects significantly better results and average increases in earnings as achieved between 2011 and 2016.
The complete Annual Report 2018 is available for download on the Energiekontor website: www.energiekontor.de/en/investor-relations/financial-reports
About Energiekontor AG:
For nearly 30 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 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 wind farms and a solar park with a total rated power of around 280 megawatts. Energiekontor AG intends to be a pioneer when it comes to economic viability in realising the first wind farms and solar parks at market prices without state subsidies in all target markets as quickly as possible.
In addition to its headquarters in Bremen, Energiekontor also maintains offices in Bremerhaven, Hagen im Bremischen, Aachen, Dortmund, Bernau (near Berlin) and Potsdam. The company also has branch offices in England (Leeds), Scotland (Glasgow), Portugal (Lisbon), the Netherlands (Nijmegen), the US (Austin/Texas and Rapid City/South Dakota) and France (Toulouse, Rouen).
The track record speaks for itself: 121 wind farms and three solar parks completed with a total rated power of just under 1 gigawatt. This corresponds to an investment volume of more than EUR 1.6 billion.
Energiekontor went public on May 25, 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.