Energiekontor AG still on track with good 2017 results
Bremen, 12 April 2018. Given the significant additions to Group-owned wind farms from own developments, Energiekontor AG’s earnings for the 2017 financial year were in line with expectations. Group EBT amounted to EUR 16.7 million (previous year: EUR 35.5 million) and consolidated net income came to EUR 11.9 million (previous year: EUR 25.3 million). At EUR 202.1 million, the Group’s total output was well above the previous year (previous year: EUR 166.7 million) and underlines the sustained high productivity and ability of the Company to create value.
At the level of the AG, Energiekontor generated net income of EUR 15.5 million (previous year: EUR 28.7 million). The Management Board and the Supervisory Board will suggest a dividend of EUR 0.60 per share at the General Meeting on 23 May 2018.
“The significant decline in earnings compared to the previous year can largely be attributed to the fact that about half of all wind farms developed by Energiekontor in 2017 were added to the Group’s own portfolio”, Peter Szabo, Energiekontor’s CEO explains. “The potential margins, which would be realised as profits if the projects were sold, remain as hidden reserves in property, plant and equipment. Group-owned plants continuously generate profits over the years. Energiekontor prefers this strategy of sustainable growth, which also safeguards the business for the long term, to short-term profit-taking. As Energiekontor has consistently followed this strategy in the 2017 financial year, the difference to the previous year is particularly striking. In order to expand the Group’s own portfolio of wind farms and solar parks, we intend to maintain this strategy in the coming years.”
With that in mind, the operating business of Energiekontor AG was largely on track in the 2017 financial year. The Group completed and commissioned ten projects and sold three wind farms and three single turbines to investors. Merely the Hammelwarder Moor wind farm and the Garzau-Garzin solar park were only finalised at the beginning of 2018. Together with the projects Bremen-Hemelingen and Debstedt II, which are still under construction, Energiekontor has implemented all wind farms that were granted a permit before the end of 2016 and are therefore remunerated at a higher tariff in accordance with the transitional provisions of EEG 2017.
“As anticipated, Company growth slowed down temporarily in 2017. Our acquisition activities in Germany and the UK as well as the new national markets Netherlands, France and the US took the overall pipeline of projects in different development stages up to nearly 3,000 MW”, Peter Szabo summarises the past financial year.
With respect to the current financial year, he adds: “In 2018, we anticipate a transitional year where reported Group EBT might fall short of the previous year’s figure. This is due primarily to the onshore wind auctioning procedure introduced in Germany in 2017, which led to a certain degree of competitive distortion and undesirable effects. Energiekontor and many other project developers were forced to fundamentally change the planning and permission of projects already approved to be able to profitably realise these projects on the basis of the massively lower feed-in tariffs. Accordingly, many of the projects planned in 2018 are experiencing unplanned delays. However, due to the excellent project pipelines in Germany and abroad and Energiekontor’s progress in realising projects on the basis of PPAs without state subsidies and the expected first earnings contributions from the new foreign markets, the Management Board currently assumes that 2018 is an exception caused by the general external conditions and that, from 2019, the growth path will return to the level seen in previous years.”
Energiekontor will presumably realise the first projects without state subsidies that are based only on Power Purchase Agreements with large companies (end-user PPAs) in the UK. Also in the US, the profitability of wind and solar projects relies on PPAs. In the western part of Texas, Energiekontor’s on-site team has already secured sites for setting up solar parks with a capacity of more than 600 MW. The first PPAs for these projects are to be concluded as early as the current 2018 financial year. The management intends to start selling project rights as from this stage rather than setting up the solar parks itself. This approach provides for faster profit and preserves available equity. Depending on the progress of the projects, the US business might start contributing to earnings as from 2018.
“We want to further expand our solar business and establish successful activities in the new national markets”, Szabo continues. “Our work is driven by a vision, which is also part of our mission statement: to cover the entire electricity need with 100 percent renewable energy. Our mission statement begins with this vision. It motivates our staff each day to bring forward creative ideas and to take pleasure in achieving joint success on the path to reaching this overall objective.
The best way for renewable energies to prevail on the energy market is to bring the levelized cost of electricity to a level below the cost of fossil and nuclear power generation. Here, Energiekontor can make a significant contribution. We want to take a pioneering role and realise wind farms and solar parks with a levelized cost of electricity that is below that of conventional energy sources.
This step will do away with a number of barriers, such as the economic barrier: users will always opt for the cheaper provider as long as this does not entail further disadvantages, above all if the cheaper option is also the more environmentally friendly one. At the same time, a social barrier will fall: renewables are bound to receive stronger backing from politicians and society, especially when wind and solar energy cease to depend on state subsidies. All this will give the renewable energy sector a strong boost.”
An extract from the German original version of the annual 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 34 wind farms (as of 31.12.2017) with total rated power of around 260 megawatts. Now, Energiekontor AG intends to extend its pioneering role to commercial aspects and to realise wind farms and solar parks at pure 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, 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 underway. Our track record speaks for itself: 118 wind farms in operation, with total rated power of around 940 megawatts. This corresponds to an investment volume of about EUR 1.5 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.