Energiedienst Group remains on course for growth
The Energiedienst Group was able to further increase its operating income in the first half of 2020. However, negative developments on the capital market pushed the operating result down on the previous year. Adjusted for non-operational effects, the operating result also improved.
According to a communication from Energiedienst Holding AG , the Swiss-German Energiedienst group achieved operating income of 532 million euros in the first half of 2020. In the same period of the previous year, 49 million euros less had been generated. The company attributes the growth primarily to higher prices in the sales business and increased electricity trading volumes.
Negative effects on the capital market, however, would have reduced the operating result (EBIT) year-on-year by 1 million euros to 12 million, said Energiedienst in the press release. Adjusted for non-operating effects, however, EBIT rose by 8 million to 24 million euros. "Operationally, the Energiedienst Group is doing better in the first half of 2020 than in the same period of the previous year", Jörg Reichert, CEO of Energiedienst Holding AG, is quoted in the announcement. "But the pandemic is not leaving the Energiedienst Group unaffected." The group expects that it will not be able to achieve its originally targeted operating result of 41 million euros for the year as a whole.
In terms of profit for the period, a year-on-year decline of 6 million to 8 million euros had to be accepted. According to the announcement, the background to this is a negative performance of the company's securities. It reduced the financial result year-on-year by 5 million euros to a loss of 3 million euros.
"The Energiedienst Group has been one of the first integrated energy companies in Germany and Switzerland to be climate-neutral since January 2020," explains Reichert. This climate neutrality is "the foundation of their business activities", it says in the announcement. According to her, the group was able to win several large business customers in the six months under review “thanks to its climate neutrality”.