As an Austrian industrial group with an international focus, AGRANA operates globally in its Fruit segment, while its Starch and Sugar segments operate mainly in Europe. In these markets, AGRANA seeks or already occupies a leading position in the industrial processing of agricultural raw materials. The Group pursues a growth strategy oriented to the respective local market opportunities. Long-lasting, stable customer and supplier relationships, respectful treatment of all stakeholders and continual growth in the company’s value are major cornerstones of the corporate strategy, which is guided by the principles of sustainable management. AGRANA’s aim is to provide both its globally operating and its regional customers worldwide with high product quality, optimum service and innovative product development ideas and expertise.
AGRANA controls and manages the product value chain from the purchase of agricultural raw materials to the production of the resulting intermediate goods for industrial customers (and end products for consumers in the case of the Sugar segment). The Group utilises its strategic know-how across segment boundaries. This is especially true for agricultural grower contract management and raw material procurement, the knowledge of customer requirements and markets, the opportunities for the development of inter-segment products, and synergies in logistics, purchasing, sales and finance. The cross-segment application of these competencies forms the basis for a robust market position relative to competitors in all product groups and underpins AGRANA’s innovative strength and its competitiveness.
In its business operations, AGRANA seeks to make the part of the value chain that it can influence as sustainable as possible. To AGRANA, sustainability means a harmonious balance between environmental, economic and social performance in its business activities. The following three guiding principles sum up AGRANA’s understanding of sustainability:
The Management Board introduced core elements of the new strategy concept at the Annual General Meeting on 7 July 2023. As previously reported, in the 2022|23 financial year the Group had addressed future issues and the long-term realignment of the company. Global developments and future trends relevant to AGRANA were discussed with the support of external consultants. These provided the framework for broad-based internal working groups that considered AGRANA’s opportunities and options. The ideas were fleshed out in individual subject areas and then refined with experts from the company and with external advice until a basis for decision-making was achieved. The entire project was coordinated by a strategy group newly established at the time. At the Annual General Meeting on 7 July 2023, the cornerstones of the AGRANA growth strategy were presented. Against the backdrop of climate change and sweeping transformations in the entire value chain of food production – from agriculture to the end customer – the following priorities are to be pursued in the coming years: 1) Strengthen the core business through a greater focus on innovation, expansion of the value chain, comprehensive customer orientation and new sales channels; 2) Develop new growth markets and solutions based on natural, renewable raw materials; 3) Further develop the organisation and corporate culture; 4) Achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) by 2050 at the latest. With the strategy revision, the AGRANA Group has launched a competitive, forward-looking and trail-blazing process for further profitable growth and sustainable success.
| AGRANA share data | 2023|24 | 2022|23 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closing price at Feb 29/28 year-end | € | 13.35 | 17.00 |
| High | € | 18.10 | 17.40 |
| Low | € | 13.20 | 16.36 |
| Earnings per share | € | 1.04 | 0.25 |
| Closing price/earnings ratio at year-end | 12.8 | 68.0 | |
| Closing book value per share at year-end | € | 18.99 | 19.10 |
| Number of shares at year-end | ’000 | 62,489.0 | 62,489.0 |
| Closing market capitalisation at year-end | €m | 834.2 | 1,062.3 |
| ISIN CODEAT000AGRANA3 | Exchange/ market segmentVSE/Prime Market | Type of securityOrdinary shares | Number of shares62,488,976 |
| Reuters CodeAGRV.VI | Bloomberg CodeAGR:AV | Ticker symbolAGR |
In the stock market, too, the 2023 calendar year was defined by a challenging economic environment with high interest rates, inflation and geopolitical tensions. Nonetheless, international equity markets proved resilient, with very positive price performance across the board. Thus, the EURO STOXX 50®, the top European equity market index, gained 19.2% (to 4,521.65 points as of the end of the 2023 calendar year) and the German benchmark DAX® index even advanced by 20.3% (to 16,751.64 points). The Austrian stock market could not keep pace by comparison, rising 9.9% over the year; on 29 December 2023 the Austrian national index, the ATX®, closed at 3,434.97 points.
AGRANA started the 2023|24 financial year at a share price of € 17.00. Until early July 2023 the share price performance was still positive on a year-to-date basis, with the high for the year reached on 5 June 2023. Since the dividend payment for the 2022|23 financial year in the middle of July, the share price then receded continually until the close of the financial year at the end of February 2024. The solid business performance in 2023|24 with improved earnings in every quarter was thus not reflected in the share price. Instead, the continuing war in Ukraine seemed to prompt international investors to hold back in the Austrian market overall. With their business activities, Austrian companies are perceived as being particularly tied to Central and Eastern Europe. In the financial year a dampened to downward price performance was also seen in many issuers with a low free float (low especially by international standards) and whose shares therefore have limited liquidity. The closing price of AGRANA’s shares of € 13.35 at the balance sheet date was off 21.5% from the start of the financial year. The performance of the ATX index over the same period was a decline of 5.6%. AGRANA’s average trading volume1 on the Vienna Stock Exchange was about 23,800 shares per day (prior year: approximately 18,300 shares per day).
The market capitalisation at the end of February 2024, with 62,488,976 shares outstanding, was € 834.2 million (prior year: € 1,062.3 million).
1 Trading volume based on double counting, as published by the Vienna Stock Exchange.
AGRANA is committed to a predictable, reliable and transparent dividend policy focused on continuity. The distributions are based not only on the Group’s profit but also on its cash flow and its debt situation, taking into consideration the need to maintain a sound balance sheet structure. In its dividend policy, AGRANA also takes into account current events and the expected future business performance. For the financial year under review, the Management Board will therefore propose to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on 5 July 2024 to pay a dividend of € 0.90 per share, representing a dividend yield of 6.7% based on the share price of € 13.35 at the end of February 2024 (prior year: 5.3%). The dividend payment date is 15 July 2024.
| 2023|24 | 2022|23 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dividend per share | € | 0.901 | 0.90 |
| Earnings per share | € | 1.04 | 0.25 |
| Dividend payout ratio | % | 86.51 | 360.0 |
| Dividend yield2 | % | 6.71 | 5.3 |
1 Dividend proposal to the Annual General Meeting.
2 Based on the closing share price at the balance sheet date.
AGRANA has a very long-standing, stable principal shareholder in AGRANA Zucker, Stärke und Frucht Holding AG (“AZSF”), Vienna, in which Zucker-Beteiligungsgesellschaft m.b.H. (“ZBG”), Vienna, and Südzucker AG (“Südzucker”), Mannheim, Germany, are shareholders. Under a syndicate agreement between Südzucker and ZBG, the partners in the syndicate have mutual rights to appoint members of each other’s management board and supervisory board.
In the 2023|24 financial year there was no material change in shareholder structure.
1 Directly held.