Highlights of 9m 2013
Total revenue, other income, fair value adjustments and net changes in inventory was EUR 57,298 thousand (EUR 59,909 thousand in 9m 2012).
EBITDA was EUR 359 thousand (EUR 7,435 thousand in 9m 2012).
The Net loss was EUR 10,715 thousand (loss of EUR 6,695 thousand in 9m 2012).
The consolidated assets as of September 30, 2013 amounted to EUR 203,155 thousand (EUR 210,100 thousand at December 31, 2012).
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS AFTER THE REPORTING PERIOD
As of November 17, 2013 the Group had completed harvesting on 76 thousand hectares, i.e. 98% of the total estimated harvested area.
In the end of October 2013, the Group completed autumn sowing. 38 thousand hectares was seeded with winter wheat and 8 thousand hectares with winter rapeseed.
Trigon Agri’s Founder and Chairman of the Board, Joakim Helenius, Comments:
Autumn harvesting conditions this year in the Black Sea region have been unusually challenging as the rains that started in Ukraine and Rostov, Russia, in August did not let up until the beginning of November. Whilst this potentially bodes well for the 2014 early harvest as soil moisture conditions that suffered from the extreme 2012 drought have been replenished, it negatively affected the quality and yields of our 2013 late harvest. Nevertheless, we achieved the highest average yields in the history of our operations, which is a reflection of our continued progress in increasing the efficiency of our field operations. However, due to the continued weakness in soft commodity prices during the second half of the current year, our result for 2013 will be weaker than in 2012.
We are making good progress in the work we are carrying out on our non-core asset disposal program and hope to make announcements to this effect in the near future. Also the work on partnering up with investors to finance the roll-out of our irrigation projects in Ukraine and Russia without burdening our balance sheet is making good progress and we hope to make announcements during the next quarter.
OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY
As stated before, our long-term goal is to achieve a 20% return on assets. In the short to medium term we will focus on using proceeds from our non-core asset disposals to pay off our debt in order to make progress in our aim of over time making the company essentially debt-free. The irrigation potential in the Rostov area together with our profitable Ukrainian operations will provide a platform which we believe over time will allow us to achieve our targeted return on assets of 20%.
We are focusing our business on developing our core assets – the Rostov cluster and the Ukrainian operations – with a significant roll-out of irrigated farming over time.
MANAGEMENT OUTLOOK
Our winter crops have been seeded and are currently all in good to excellent condition. As can be seen from the attached 9 month figures our current year results will be weaker than in 2012, but given the solid crop conditions for next year we are standing on a good platform to significantly improve our result next year subject to commodity price levels.
Telephone conference details
A telephone conference will be held today, on November 29, 2013 at 10.00 CET.
Program:
Joakim Helenius, Chairman of the Board, and Ülo Adamson, President and CEO, will present and comment upon the results. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.
To participate in the conference call, and thereby be able to ask any questions, please call one of the following numbers:
SE: +46 (0)8 505 564 74
UK: +44 203 364 5374
FI: +358 981710460
NO: +47 235 002 10
DK: +45 354 45 580
CH: +41 225 675 541
US: +1 855 753 2230
The presentation material will be available on www.trigonagri.com before the telephone conference starts. A recording of the telephone conference will be available afterwards on www.trigonagri.com.
Investor enquiries:
Mr. Ülo Adamson, President and CEO of Trigon Agri A/S, Tel: +372 66 79200, E-mail: mail@trigonagri.com
About Trigon Agri
Trigon Agri is a leading integrated soft commodities production, storage and trading company with operations in Ukraine, Russia and Estonia. Trigon Agri’s shares are traded on the main market of NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. Trigon Agri is managed under a management agreement by Trigon Capital, a leading Central and Eastern European operational management firm with around USD 1 billion of assets under management.
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