Best year ever for Graninge AB

Best year ever for Graninge AB In his address to the Annual General Meeting in Stockholm this Monday, Graninge's Managing Director and CEO, Lars Enslöf, summed up another record year and set a clear and decisive tone for the future. In addition, the shareholders were treated to a record high dividend of SEK 5.50 per share. Lars Enslöf: "In a situation where many highly respected companies are being forced to lower their dividends, it is worth noting that we have been unable to raise our dividend on only three occasions since 1980 - in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Furthermore, during this period our dividend has increased by an average of 15 per cent annually!" Lars Enslöf points out that Graninge is among the fastest-growing players in the energy sector: "In the past four years alone, we have nearly quadrupled our sales. We have established ourselves as the fourth largest electricity seller in Sweden and one of the leaders in the Nordic region, at the same time that we have entered the district heating market through acquisitions. Unlike many of our counterparts, we have succeeded in expanding without jeopardising our financial strength." Ongoing expansion "The prospects for ongoing expansion are favourable", underlined Lars Enslöf, and pointed out Graninge's healthy and stable cash flow, strong balance sheet, finely tuned organisation capable of handling increasing volumes with competent, dedicated and loyal staff, and a well established brand that is ranked on par with the dominant players in the industry according to certain surveys. Yet another wet year led to all-time high production levels in Graninge's hydroelectric plants. The power plants in Sweden and Finland produced a total of 3.9 TWh, up 10 per cent on 2000 and 30 per cent higher than in a normal year. Including thermal power production of 0.2 TWh, the Group's combined electricity production during 2001 reached an unprecedented 4.1 TWh. In terms of earnings the Graninge Group's posted its strongest profit ever in 2001, after elimination of non-recurring items. Profit before tax was SEK 721 million, down 4 per cent on the figure for 2000 which included non-recurring items of SEK 317 million. Excluding these, profit in the past year improved by 67 per cent. In addition, on Monday Graninge published its interim report for the first three months of 2002: "2002 has gotten off to a good start and we reported a pre-tax profit of SEK 260 million for the first quarter, up a full 25 per cent on the corresponding period of last year. This is our strongest first quarter on record - never before have we posted a better quarterly result for the period January-March. The main factor behind our earnings growth is that run-off has remained unusually high for the season. And although prices in the spot market have fallen in the wake of a warm winter, we have once again been able to sell the produced power at comparatively high prices thanks to the forward contracts signed last year when prices were at a peak." The AGM elected the following members and deputies to the Board of Graninge AB (publ): Bo Rydin, Werner Brinker, Mats Cederholm, Lars Enslöf, Bo Källstrand, Anders Nordin, Christina Strandman Ullrich (all re-elected) and Gerald Wingrove (new member). Robert Diethrich was re- elected as a deputy Board member. For additional information contact: Kalle Karlsson, Corporate Communications Director, Graninge AB, telephone +46 8 753 6860 or mobile: +46 70 683 4343 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/04/29/20020429BIT01590/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/04/29/20020429BIT01590/wkr0002.pdf