Trigon Agri A/S 1Q 2012 Interim Report: continued improvement in 1Q EBITDA results
Highlights of 1Q 2012
- Total revenue, other income, fair value adjustments and net changes in inventory for 1Q 2012 amounted to EUR 10,333 thousand (EUR 7,684 thousand in 1Q 2011).
- Cost of purchased goods amounted to EUR 3,426 thousand in 1Q 2012 (EUR 1,020 thousand in 1Q 2011)
- Total operating expenses amounted to EUR 6,891 thousand in 1Q 2012 (EUR 7,464 thousand in 1Q 2011).
- EBITDA in 1Q 2012 amounted to EUR 16 thousand (loss of EUR 800 thousand in 1Q 2011).
- EBIT in 1Q 2012 amounted to loss of EUR 2,009 thousand (loss of EUR 2,565 thousand in 1Q 2011).
- The Net profit of the Group in 1Q 2012 amounted to loss of EUR 3,811 thousand (loss of EUR 2,963 thousand in 1Q 2011).
- The consolidated assets of the Group as of March 31, 2012 amounted to EUR 196,436 thousand (EUR 194,360 thousand at December 31, 2011).
Trigon Agri’s Chairman of the Board, Joakim Helenius, comments:
Good first Quarter
The first financial quarter in farming operations in Southern Russia and in Ukraine is typically operationally uneventful as our fields are still under snow cover and the only activities we undertake are machinery repair works and sales of inventories left from last year’s crop (done in 2012 broadly in line with the price levels at which the inventory had been marked in our books at year-end 2011). In the light of this, the EBITDA profit shown in Q1 this year is more or less in line with our expectations.
Two acquisitions
During the first quarter we have signed up two exciting new acquisitions, which both take us a significant step forward in reaching our overall strategic aims. Firstly, the acquisition of a new 30,000ha farm in the Rostov region of Southern Russia, announced in March and targeted to be closed in Q3 2012, will allow us to substantially upgrade the quality of our land portfolio in Russia. It will also put our Russian cereals production operations in a strong position to eventually catch up with or even outperform financially our cereals production operations in Ukraine. Secondly, the acquisition of the largest dairy farm in Estonia, announced in March and closed in April, takes us much closer to declared our goal of attracting outside third party investors to our milk production operations. The deal was carried out on very favourable financial terms and makes the investment case for our milk production subsidiary substantially more attractive.
New dividend policy
2011 was a milestone year for us as we achieved our first full year net profit. On the back of this result we instituted a dividend policy of 30% of net profits at our annual general meeting in April 2012. This policy will dictate our dividends going forward with the first dividend already paid to our shareholders for the 2011 financial year.
Objectives remain
We retain our targets for increasing the area harvested in our cereals production operations and expanding our storage capacity but reiterate our intention to undertake expansion only subject to our investment plans meeting stringent criteria regarding return on equity (ROE). We have set ourselves an internal average 20% ROE target. Some parts of our business are already showing substantially higher ROE’s and our focus as we continue to develop the business is to make sure all of our assets yield at least our targeted returns over time (allowing for annual volatility related to weather or price fluctuations).
Outlook
Prices year to date have shown a positive dynamic and are currently substantially higher than during the second half of last year. The outlook for 2012 is favourable but we still have to see how the year will unfold in terms of the local weather conditions.
Investor enquiries:
Mr. Ülo Adamson, President and CEO of Trigon Agri A/S Tel: +372 66 79200 E-mail: mail@trigonagri.com
About Trigon Agri
Trigon Agri is a leading integrated soft commodities production, storage and trading company with operations in Ukraine, Russia and Estonia. Trigon Agri’s shares are traded on the main market of NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. Trigon Agri is managed under a management agreement by Trigon Capital, a leading Central and Eastern European operational management firm with around USD 1 billion of assets under management.
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