BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - CropEnergies AG reported that its third-quarter operating profit declined to 12 million euros from 18 million euros in the same quarter last year.
Third-quarter revenues rose to 219 million euros from 215 million euros, a year ago.
Income from operations in the first nine months of the financial year improved to 58 million euros from 53 million euros last year.
EBITDA in the first nine months of the financial year increased slightly to 88 million euros from 87 million euros in the prior year. With higher raw material prices and costs incurred from maintenance measures, operating profit reached the previous year's level of 59 million euros.
In the first three quarters of the financial year 2017/18, revenues of CropEnergies AG increased by 20 percent to 679 million euros from the previous year's 565 million euros, due to the increased production volumes. In addition, higher prices for ethanol were realized and the trade volumes increased.
CropEnergies continues to expect a high volatility of ethanol prices. After high prices in the last quarter of the previous financial year, CropEnergies expects prices that are significantly below that of the previous year until the end of the current financial year. In addition, overall higher grain prices are expected for the financial year 2017/18. CropEnergies confirmed the revenue expectations in a range of 880 million euros and 920 million euros. Operating profit is to lie in a range of 65 million euros to 85 million euros. This corresponds to an EBITDA of 105 million euros to 125 million euros. In the previous year, revenues of 802 million euros and an operating profit of 98 million euros were reported.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX