Oldenburg, Germany, 12 March 2013. After two successive years of losses, EWE once again generated a clear profit in 2012: Based on the preliminary figures, the Group’s EBIT increased to €404.3 million (2011: €-124.3 million). The factors triggering this return to a profit included the absence of one-off effects due to impairments on shareholdings and also of reimbursements to gas customers. In addition, other savings in the amount of €53 million were achieved as a result of the Group’s reorganisation. Group sales increased by 9.5 per cent last year to €8.2 billion (2011: €7.5 billion). The Group result was a profit of €138.8 million (2011: €-281.9 million).
EWE Energy business area
The EWE Energy business area achieved sales of €6.4 billion (previous year: €5.5 billion). In the previous year, full reimbursements to around 400,000 natural gas customers had a negative impact on how sales developed. The EBIT generated by the 2,648 employees in the EWE Energy business area rose by €74.8 million to €407.9 million.
swb business area
The swb business area’s sales amounted to €1.19 billion and were therefore slightly up on the previous year’s figure (€1.16 billion). The previous year’s result was very much shaped by one-off effects caused by changes in the underlying conditions of the energy industry, but the EBIT for 2012 was positive, at €58.8 million. The swb business area had an employee headcount of 2,333.
New Markets and ICT business area
The New Markets and ICT business area recorded sales of €1.07 billion (previous year: €1.02 billion). This year-on-year increase in sales is primarily attributable to the Turkish business unit. As a whole, the business area generated an EBIT of €11.4 million (previous year: €-195.3 million). Here, too, the absence of one-off effects played a part in the major year-on-year improvement. In 2012, the New Markets and ICT business area had a total of 3,720 employees.
Outlook for 2013
In view of the current market and business developments, EWE embarked on a Group reorganisation in 2011. “We have already made a great deal of progress in achieving our goals of safeguarding the Group’s competitiveness and profitability, and of achieving a sustainable improvement in the Group’s result”, said EWE’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Werner Brinker. “In the 2012 financial year, we continued to systematically implement the measures introduced in 2011 to improve our competitiveness, and are now seeing the first positive effects of these. This confirms that we are right to press ahead with a clear focus on promising lines of business.” EWE is anticipating a moderate increase in its Group sales of around five per cent in 2013 and has set its sights on achieving a similar EBIT to that of the 2012 financial year.
Date
The press conference on results will take on 23 April in Oldenburg.
Tables
You will find an overview of the most important key figures in the pdf-Version of this release.
