MVV Energie posts good start to new financial year

The Mannheim-based energy company MVV Energie (WKN: A0H52F, ISIN: DE000A0H52F5) began the new 2017 financial year on a successful note. As announced by the company when presenting its quarterly statement in Mannheim on Wednesday, in the three-month period from 1 October to 31 December 2016 operating earnings (adjusted EBIT) grew from Euro 103 mil-lion to Euro 115 million while sales rose from Euro 940 million to around Euro 1.1 billion.

According to company CEO Dr. Georg Müller, these results were driven on the one hand by colder weather conditions compared with the previous year, with a resultant increase in heating energy turnover, and on the other hand by higher availability levels at power plants and facilities following several scheduled inspection measures in the previous year’s period. These factors more than offset lower wind volumes compared with the previous year. Like in the previous year, earnings were adversely affected by higher transport costs due to low water levels on the Rhine. Commented Dr. Müller: "This good start to our new financial year shows that we are consistently upholding our successful growth course."

Success in expanding renewable energies
MVV Energie’s sales performance also showed the effects of the first-time full consolidation of the Juwi subgroup and the marked rise in electricity trading volumes resulting from success in the direct marketing of renewable energies and the nationwide sales business. In its renewable energies project development business, the group of companies launched operations with electrical capacity totalling around 380 megawatts in the period between October and December 2016. In Germany, this new capacity involved onshore wind turbines while in the international business it mostly related to photovoltaics power plants. MVV Energie further boosted its position as one of Germany’s leading players in its direct marketing business. MVV Energie had 6,300 megawatts under contract at the beginning of the year, 1,700 megawatts more than at the end of September 2016.

At the same time, the company’s proprietary electricity generation volumes from renewable energies, including the biogenic share of waste, rose year-on-year by 17 million to 310 million kilowatt hours in the 1st quarter of the 2017 financial year.

Positive outlook for 2017 confirmed
Alongside the growth in its sales and adjusted EBIT figures, MVV Energie also reported an increase in its pre-tax earnings in the 1st quarter of the current financial year. Adjusted EBIT rose from Euro 90 million to Euro 102 million. Profit, i.e. adjusted net income for the period after minority interests, increased year-on-year by Euro 7 million to Euro 61 million. That is equivalent to adjusted earnings per share of Euro 0.93, as against Euro 0.82 in the same quarter in the previous year.

The company has confirmed its positive outlook with regard to its earnings forecast for the financial year as a whole. From an operating perspective, MVV Energie thus expects to report slight growth in both sales and operating earnings. In the previous year, the company posted adjusted EBIT of Euro 213 million. Sales for the 2016 financial year totalled Euro 4.1 billion.

Ongoing high pace of investment
According to MVV’s CEO, Dr. Müller, this positive earnings performance is the result of the company’s consistent strategic alignment towards the energy system of the future. “In recent years, we have invested almost three billion euros in expanding renewable energies and in boosting energy efficiency and combined heat and power generation in conjunction with environmentally-friendly district heating. By smartly linking renewable and conventional energies, we have successfully adopted a pioneering role in converting the energy supply in Germany”. MVV Energie will therefore be maintaining a high pace of investment in future as well and invest a further three billion euros in the years ahead. In the first three months of the current financial year, a total of around Euro 58 million was channelled into growth and into modernising and maintaining plants and grids.