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. By sustainability in this context, AGRANA primarily means the following three aspects, which apply to all business segments:
In the last financial year, the Group 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 new strategy group established in March 2022.
The Group leadership intends to present the results of this work and the core elements of the new strategic concept at the Annual General Meeting on 7 July 2023.
| AGRANA share data | 2022|23 | 2021|22 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closing price at Feb 28 year-end | € | 17.00 | 16.54 |
| High | € | 17.40 | 20.55 |
| Low | € | 13.20 | 16.36 |
| Earnings/(loss) per share | € | 0.25 | (0.20) |
| Closing price/earnings ratio at year-end | 68.0 | neg. | |
| Closing book value per share at year-end | € | 19.10 | 19.60 |
| Number of shares at year-end | ’000 | 62,489.0 | 62,489.0 |
| Closing market capitalisation at year-end | €m | 1,062.3 | 1,033.6 |
| ISIN CODEAT000AGRANA3 | Exchange/ market segmentVSE/Prime Market | Type of securityOrdinary shares | Number of shares62,488,976 |
| Reuters CodeAGRV.VI | Bloomberg CodeAGR:AV | Ticker symbolAGR |
A changed inflation and interest rate situation, the Russian attack on Ukraine and the ongoing energy crisis weighed on European equity markets in the 2022 calendar year. Developed stock markets worldwide mostly showed double-digit price declines over the course of the year. The Austrian stock market fit this pattern in 2022. After gaining 38.9% in 2021, the Austrian national benchmark index, the ATX, fell 19.03% for the 2022 calendar year. As of 30 December 2022, the ATX stood at 3,126.39 points.
AGRANA started the 2022|23 financial year at a share price of € 16.54. After the “war shock” and a price drop in the first half of March 2022, the share price stabilised between € 16 and € 17 and subsequently moved sideways at this general level until the middle of September 2022. AGRANA’s shares outperformed the ATX during this phase. The AGRANA share price fell sharply with the ad-hoc announcement of the Fruit segment impairment charge near the end of the first half of 2022|23, but rose continually again from the end of October 2022 after the Group, with the publication of its half-year results, also reaffirmed its guidance of a strong pre-exceptionals operating profit performance for the full year. From November 2022, a certain correlation with the index performance of the Vienna stock market was also apparent until the end of the financial year. The closing price of AGRANA’s shares of € 17.00 at the balance sheet date was up 2.8% from the start of the financial year. The performance of the ATX index over the same period was +4.7%. AGRANA’s average trading volume1 on the Vienna Stock Exchange was about 18,300 shares per day (prior year: approximately 22,000 shares per day).
The market capitalisation at the end of February 2023, with 62,488,976 shares outstanding, was € 1,062.3 million (prior year: € 1,033.6 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 7 July 2023 to pay a dividend of € 0.90 per share, representing a dividend yield of 5.3% based on the share price of € 17.00 at the end of February 2023 (prior year: 4.5%). The dividend payment date is 14 July 2023.
| 2022|23 | 2021|22 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dividend per share | € | 0.901 | 0.75 |
| Earnings/(loss) per share | € | 0.25 | (0.20) |
| Dividend payout ratio | % | 360.01 | neg. |
| Dividend yield2 | % | 5.31 | 4.5 |
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 2022|23 financial year there was no material change in shareholder structure.
1 Directly held.