Enlarged Aurubis Group stands up well in the crisis and generates positive results in fiscal year 2008/09
Thursday, Mar 04, 2010
The Aurubis Group which has grown as a result of the integration with Cumerio stood up well in the crisis. „We were able to stand our ground overall as a stronger group in the crisis and generate positive results“, declared CEO Dr Bernd Drouven at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday in Hamburg in front of about 1,800 shareholders. The business model as an integrated copper producer and processor had proved to be robust and stable, the synergy and improvement effects had made a significant contribution to results and Aurubis had become an international group with Europe-wide presence and global weight, stated Drouven. In addition, a uniform strategy had been developed under the Aurubis roof and implementation had begun throughout the group.In fiscal year 2008/09 ending 30 September 2009, Aurubis achieved positive earnings before taxes (EBT) of € 73 million (€ 341 million in the prior year) on a LIFO basis despite one of the worst economic crises in recent history. The consolidated net income amounted to € 53 million (€ 237 million in the prior year). The proposal of the Supervisory and Executive Boards was accepted at the Annual General Meeting to pay a dividend of € 0.65 per share to the shareholders (€ 1.60 in the prior year). This represents a dividend yield of 2.3 percent related to the closing price of Aurubis shares of € 28.48 on 30 September 2009. Thus, although the dividend is lower, the payout ratio rose from 26 to 36 percent in the crisis year.
According to Drouven, an uptrend has been evident since the middle of last year, which is reflected in the results of the first quarter of the new fiscal year 2009/10. Good operating earnings (EBT) of € 47 million were achieved on a LIFO basis, some 50 percent up on the result for the whole of the last fiscal year and as much as 2.5 times higher compared with the prior-year quarter.
With a view to the economic situation, Drouven explained the outlook for Europe’s largest copper producer: “It seems ambitious to extrapolate the quarterly results to the fiscal year as a whole, in particular on account of the volatility of the copper scrap markets; however, the operating result should be considerably higher than that generated in the last fiscal year“. This assumption was based on a continued positive trend for the copper product and sulphuric acid business, and still good margins in the recycling business. As to the refining charges for copper scrap, strong fluctuations could not be ruled out due to the short-term nature of the business. Valuation effects would result from copper price fluctuations, the direction and extent of which could not however be predicted. Since these effects were non-cash, they had no significance for the operating result. In the medium term it had become evident that demand for copper was increasing and the treatment and refining charges for copper concentrates were improving. According to Drouven, Aurubis intended to make considerable progress in the current fiscal year en route to becoming the leading integrated copper producer and processor. After the successful integration and initial success in implementing strategic projects, the Group was in a position to pursue specific potential growth steps. „This includes not only investigating investment and growth possibilities in international growth regions but also playing an active role in the consolidation of the European copper industry“, explained the Chief Executive Officer.
On top of this, the Annual General Meeting confirmed Prof. Dr E. h. Wolfgang Leese as a representative of the shareholders on the Supervisory Board of Aurubis AG until 2012. The Chairman of the Executive Board of Salzgitter AG was appointed by the court as the successor for Thomas Leysen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Umicore nv/sa, Brussels, as of 1 October 2009, who had resigned from office with effect from 30 September 2009. The other members of the Supervisory Board of Aurubis AG which has equal representation have already been elected until 2012. All the other motions presented for approval were passed as well with a great majority.
About 57 percent of the share capital with voting power attended this year’s Annual General Meeting.
Source: Aurubis
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