EVN AG — Earnings Release 2004

Feb 25, 2004

News Details

Corporate | 25 February 2004 08:01

EVN: Development of business in the 1st quarter of 2003/04 (Oct 1-Dec 31, 2003)

Corporate-news announcement processed and sent by DGAP. The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– 25 February 2004 Development of business in the first quarter of 2003/04 (October 1 – December 31, 2003) – Increased sales of electricity and heat. – Gas business characterised by altered sales structure. – Marked expansion in water business: – Initial inclusion of the WTE Group. – Wastewater business expansion due to the complete takeover of NOVUM. – Operative result at the level of the preceding year. – Marked increase in net income for the period. 2003/04 Change Q. 1 % Volumes Electricity GWh 2,954 +7.3 sold Gas1 m m3 254 -58.6 Heating GWh 327 +17.5 Water m m3 5 +1.6 EUR m Sales revenues 327.8 -6.6 Operating result (EBIT) 71.3 0.0 Result before tax 83.6 +10.5 Period net result 60.3 +18.2 1) From January 1, 2003, excluding gas key account sales and trading due to the transfer to EconGas For further information contact: Georg Waldner (Investor Relations Officer) Tel. +43 2236 200 12718 Michael Längle (Chief Financial Officer) Tel. +43 2236 200 12324 Note to editors: EVN is a leading Austrian energy services company, which supplies electricity, gas, and heating to some 900,000 customers mainly in Lower Austria, the country’s largest federal province. EVN has also successfully entered the water business, waste incineration, and municipal services. Against the background of the deregulation of the European electricity and gas markets, EVN has enhanced its corporate competitiveness through new partnerships. Together with other regional suppliers, which are united in the EnergieAllianz founded in 2000, and the national wholesale suppliers Verbundgesellschaft and OMV, “Austrian solutions” have been created for the electricity and gas (“EconGas”) sectors. Sales revenues As a result of the change in the gas business sales structure, which came into force on January 1, 2003, and involved the transfer of both key accounts and gas trading to EconGas, EVN sales revenues declined as compared to the figure for the first quarter of the 2002/03 financial year. Result Despite the fall in energy business revenues due to the transfer to EconGas and the unfavourable developments in energy purchasing prices, EVN’s operating result during the period under review amounted to EUR 71.3 m, which was virtually unchanged compared to the preceding year. By contrast, the financial result of EUR 12.4 m was well up on the EUR 4.4 m of the previous year. The decisive factor in this increase was a higher result from investments. In total, at EUR 83.6 m, the result before tax was 10.5% above the comparable figure for preceding year. Following a reduction in the taxes on profit, net result for the period improved by 18.2%, from EUR 51.0 m to EUR 60.3 m. This led to an increase in earnings per share (EPS) of 18.2% to EUR 1.60. As a consequence of the highly seasonal nature of business in the energy and water sectors, EVN’s development in the first quarter cannot simply be extrapolated to the 2003/04 financial year as a whole. Nonetheless, the result of the period under review provides a solid basis for the further business development. Outlook EVN CEO Rudolf Gruber, “In the first quarter of 2003/04, EVN continued to develop successfully. Apart from increases in sales in the majority of business segments, gas being the only exception due to the transfer of key account and trading businesses to EconGas, above all, we made significant progress in our new business areas. Despite the continuing burden imposed by high energy prices, we were nonetheless able to improve the result of the EVN Group compared to the previous year. EVN has also built solid positions for the future and as a result of the systematic implementation of its multi-service utility concept, has evolved from being purely an energy supplier, into a customeroriented infrastructure provider. Apart from the integrated supply of electricity, gas and heating, through our water, wastewater, waste incineration and telecommunications activities, we have also opened up additional areas of business with dynamic growth potential.” EVN’s Letter to Shareholders for the 1st quarter 2003/04 can be downloaded from http://www.investor.evn.at end of message, (c)DGAP 25.02.2004 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 074105; ISIN: AT0000741053; Index: ATX Listed: Amtlicher Handel in Wien; Amtlicher Markt in Frankfurt (General Standard, WKN 878279) und München; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen und Stuttgart 250801 Feb 04