Berentzen-Gruppe Aktiengesellschaft publishes preliminary financial results and outlook

Berentzen-Gruppe Aktiengesellschaft (ISIN: DE0005201602), listed on the Regulated Market (General Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, today announced preliminary, unaudited financial results for the 2021 financial year and an outlook for the 2022 financial year.

According to these, the group of companies is expected to have generated consolidated sales revenues of €146.1 million in the 2021 financial year (2020: €154.6 million). The consolidated operating result before interest and taxes (consolidated EBIT) in the 2021 financial year is expected to be 6.7 million euros - an increase of 28.8 per cent compared to the 2020 financial year (5.2 million euros). Group operating profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Group EBITDA) was expected to increase to 15.4 million euros (2020: 14.1 million euros).

"We are very satisfied with the Group operating result achieved against the backdrop of the ongoing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic last year. At €6.7 million, our consolidated EBIT even reached the upper end of our forecast range for the 2021 financial year, which was raised last October," said Oliver Schwegmann, Executive Board member of Berentzen-Gruppe Aktiengesellschaft. The consolidated revenues and the consolidated EBITDA were also within the expected ranges.

"After a difficult start to the year with a continuous lockdown until well into April, we succeeded in expanding our strategic business activities over the course of the year and thus significantly increasing our profitability. Overall, we were able to improve our result considerably compared to the previous year," said Schwegmann. Adjusted for the discontinuation of a contract filling business, which has already been communicated several times, the group's sales revenues also grew with a slight increase of one percent.

Outlook for the 2022 financial year
For the 2022 financial year, Berentzen-Gruppe Aktiengesellschaft expects consolidated revenues in a range of EUR 154.0 million to EUR 162.0 million, a consolidated EBIT of between EUR 5.0 million and EUR 8.0 million and a consolidated EBITDA of between EUR 14.0 million and EUR 17.0 million.

"We are convinced that social life and thus also our business volume will pick up again in the further course of the year despite the current spread of the omicron variant. Accordingly, we expect significantly higher consolidated revenues than in the 2021 financial year," explains Schwegmann. However, even the Berentzen Group cannot escape the extremely difficult conditions on the procurement markets. According to Schwegmann, these are currently characterised by massively rising energy and raw material prices as well as disrupted supply chains, which will lead to extraordinarily high cost burdens overall. Since the high procurement prices also fluctuate strongly and cannot be fixed for the majority of the financial year - as is otherwise the case - the earnings forecast must therefore work with a somewhat wider bandwidth. "Overall, however, we are sticking to our goal of ensuring sustainable growth. Therefore, after two pandemic years with correspondingly strict cost management, it is important to invest more in the long-term value drivers of personnel, sales and marketing," Schwegmann said. As a result, the key earnings figures Group EBIT and EBITDA are forecast to remain roughly at the level of the 2021 financial year despite the expected increase in revenues.

The preliminary results of Berentzen-Gruppe Aktiengesellschaft are subject to the auditor's certification and the approval of the Supervisory Board. The final financial results and further information on the 2021 financial year and the 2022 forecast will be published as scheduled on 24 March 2022 with the 2021 Annual Report.