KTG Agrar SE has good start to the 2015 harvesting season

- Prices at good levels
- Outlook: Growth drivers Energy and Food with strong first half
Hamburg, 20 August 2015. KTG Agrar SE (ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4) has had a good start to the 2015 harvesting season. Over the past weeks, the agricultural company harvested crops such as wheat, spelt, rye, barley and rapeseed on some 15,000 hectares in Germany, benefiting from the farmland diversification in East Germany.
Half way through the harvest, Siegfried Hofreiter, CEO of KTG Agrar SE, is satisfied with the results so far: "East Germany was not hit quite as hard by the drought as southern and central Germany. Moreover, our farms are spread throughout Germany, from Erfurt in the south to the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the north of the country. Taking into consideration the mix of quantities, qualities and prices, we are satisfied with the first half of the harvesting season. Some of our farms have harvested more than 10 tons of wheat and 5 tons of rapeseed per hectare." As expected, harvests will be 10 to 15 percent below the record levels of the previous year, which should be more than offset by higher prices.
In 2015, KTG Agrar cultivated over 52,000 hectares of farmland in East Germany, Lithuania (leased and own land) as well as Romania (farm management). In the coming weeks, the company will not only bring in organic soy, sugar beet and maize but also speciality crops such as potatoes, carrots and onions. KTG also clearly benefits from Europe's largest irrigation system, which the company has installed in Nonnendorf. The 2015 harvesting season will end in late autumn, when millet will be harvested as a catch crop for the production of biogas. Far more than half of the clean energy produced by KTG is generated from catch crops, agricultural waste and grasses. The result is clean food and clean energy from one field.
An increasing share of the 2015 harvest will be processed and refined »From field to plate« at KTG Agrar's own facilities in Anklam, Manschnow, Ringleben and Linthe. The products will then be marketed under the brands Frenzel Tiefkühlkost, biozentrale and Die Landwirte. Launched in 2011, the strategy of offering food from field to plate from a single source has been very successful. Sales in the food segment have risen to above EUR 100 million in 2014 and should increase to EUR 120 million in 2015. At the world's leading food fair ANUGA in October, KTG's brands will again present numerous product innovations.
As announced, the food and energy segments will be the growth drivers in 2015. The food segment has performed ahead of forecasts in the first six month of the year already. The KTG Energie has already issued strong sales and earnings growth for the first half of the year. Therefore, KTG Agrar reaffirms the outlook for the full year: Strengthening of the equity capital by increasing sales and earnings. Group sales will pass the EUR 250 million mark this year and increase to EUR 500 million within the next three years. Most of the necessary investments have already been made by the company in recent years.
About KTG Agrar SE
With cultivable land of over 45,000 hectares, KTG Agrar SE (ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4) is one of the leading producers of agricultural commodities in Europe. As an integrated supplier, the company produces agricultural commodities, renewable energy and food. The Hamburg-based company's core area of expertise is the organic and traditional cultivation of market products such as cereals, potatoes, soy and rapeseed. KTG Agrar is the European market leader in organic market products. The company mainly produces in Germany but since 2005 also in the EU member state of Lithuania. Through the takeover of the companies Frenzel Tiefkühlkost and Bio-Zentrale Naturprodukte, KTG Agrar SE has been expanding the value chain since 2011 and added food production to its business portfolio. In 2014, KTG Agrar SE achieved a total output of EUR 297.7 million and an EBIT of EUR 37.1 million. The company has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since November 2007 and employed more than 1,000 staff at year end 2014. Further information can be found on the company's website at www.ktg.ag.
Contact:
Investor Relations / Press
Fabian Lorenz
T: +49 221 29831588
E: investor@ktg.ag