Revenue of the AGRANA Group eased by 1.8% in the 2009|10 financial year to € 1,989.2 million. In the Sugar and Starch segments, lower sales prices caused revenue to decline. The volume gains of 16.7% in the AGRANA Group compared to the prior year could not fully make up for the negative price effect. With revenue of € 684.1 million (prior year: € 702.5 million) in the Sugar segment, AGRANA registered a decrease in quota sugar sales, coupled with lower sales prices, against the backdrop of the EU sugar regime after the surrendering of quota. The sales quantities of non-quota sugar grew thanks to the development of new export markets. Revenue in the Starch segment declined to € 499.2 million (prior year: € 519.4 million) despite higher volumes. As a result of their adjustment to the trend in raw material prices, selling prices trended downward. The full utilisation of the bioethanol plants in Austria and Hungary meanwhile outweighed the effect of lower prices obtained for ethanol and thus contributed to a rise in bioethanol revenue. In the Fruit segment, revenue, at € 805.9 million, was held at about the year-earlier level (prior year: € 804.4 million) through higher sales volumes. Fruit preparations revenue (accounting for about 80% of Fruit segment revenue) matched the prior-year level despite a slight volume increase. In the fruit juice concentrates business, high growth in sales quantities compensated for the significant year-on-year reduction in sales prices.
Group operating profit before exceptional items rose markedly in 2009|10 from € 37.8 million to € 91.9 million. This increase was driven primarily by the earnings improvement in the Fruit segment, where the profit situation in fruit juice concentrates was successfully stabilised. In the prior year a write-down on apple juice concentrate inventories had weighed on the result. The Starch segment benefited from a normalisation in raw material markets and a satisfactory trend in the earnings situation for bioethanol.
In financial 2009|10, exceptional items represented a net expense of € 5.0 million (prior year: net expense of € 3.2 million) and related only to the Fruit segment. They consisted of the expenses for the relocation of the holding company of AGRANA Fruit and goodwill impairment from the already completed closure of the plant in Kaplice, Czech Republic. Operating profit after exceptional items in 2009|10 was thus € 86.9 million (prior year: € 34.6 million).
Net financial items improved by € 67.5 million in 2009|10 from a deficit of € 67.1 million to a gain of € 0.5 million. The improvement was driven largely by currency translation gains (especially in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Brazil), but also by declining interest costs on the lower net debt, and gains on the sale of businesses.
As a result, profit before tax increased to € 87.4 million (prior year: pre-tax loss of € 32.4 million). After a tax expense of € 14.7 million (representing an effective tax rate of 16.8%), the Group’s profit for the period was € 72.7 million (prior year: loss for the period of € 15.9 million). The profit for the period attributable to shareholders of AGRANA grew to € 72.2 million (prior year: loss for the year of € 11.6 million); earnings per share were € 5.08 (prior year: loss per share of € 0.82).
