Südzucker closed the broken financial year that ran from March 1, 2021 to February 28, 2022, with a turnover of €7,59 billion. This is an increase of €920 million compared to one year previously.
The turnover of the sugar segment rose to €2,6 billion in the past broken financial year. One year earlier, a segment turnover of €2,2 billion was achieved. Both an increase in sugar sales and higher volumes are the basis for this growth. Partly as a result of this, we have been able to significantly reduce the operating loss in this segment, to a minus of €21 million. One year earlier, an operating loss of –€128 million was realised. “The higher sales revenues and sales volumes compensated for the higher production costs in the 2020 campaign.”
The average processing time increased from 108 to 124 days, Südzucker said in the report. The beet yield for the 2021 cultivation year is 78,3 tons per hectare. That is significantly higher than the level of one cultivation year earlier: 70,4 tons per hectare. As a result, the total beet volume increased to 27,6 million tons. "Last cultivation year, the sugar content was slightly lower than the average, at 17,3%. Although this is still higher than one year earlier, a sugar content of 16,8% was achieved. This resulted in a theoretical sugar yield of 13,6%. 4,4 tons per hectare." Total sugar production rose to XNUMX million tons in the past financial year.
CropEnergies segment record
Revenues in the CropEnergies segment increased to €1 billion. That was €774 million one financial year earlier. Operating profit thus rose to a record €127 million. The plus in this segment is also caused by higher sales revenues and volumes, which offset the higher costs for raw materials and energy, among other things. The latter is not the case in the 'special products' segment. In this segment, operating profit decreased from €159 million to €117 million. Turnover did increase slightly, to €1,78 billion.
The fruit segment also had a slightly more difficult year in the past broken financial year than one year previously. Operating profit decreased by €1 million to €52 million. This is also mainly due to higher production costs. Just like with 'special products', turnover did increase here, by the way. Turnover amounts to €1,25 billion. The starch segment did outperform, with sales of €940 million. One year earlier, that was €774 million. Operating profit here grew to €57 million, a plus of €12 million. "Sales and volume growth offset higher raw material and energy costs in this segment."
Expectations left untouched
early April Südzucker already announced that it would propose a dividend of €0,40 per share in the general meeting of members. One year earlier, a dividend of €0,20 per share was paid. That decision stands. It also does not change the group outlook for the broken financial year of 2022/2023. The group expects consolidated group turnover of €8,7 billion to €9,1 billion for that year. Significant growth is expected in particular in the sugar, specialty products and starch segments.
Operating profit is expected to be in the range of €300 million to €400 million and EBITDA of €660 million to €760 million is expected. However, the sugar producer has a small caveat to the expectations. "When preparing the expectations, we assumed that the war in Ukraine will be temporary and regionally limited. In addition, we assume that the physical supply of energy and raw materials will be guaranteed."
Investors do not immediately react positively to Südzucker's results. At the opening of the stock market, the price stood at €12,34 per share. That has dropped to $12,21 per share at the time of writing this article. One week ago, the price was on average at €12,80 per share. In six months, Südzucker's share price has fallen by 9,6%.