Corporate News from 31 May 2023
HMS Bergbau AG: Record results in 2022
Berlin, 31 May 2023: HMS Bergbau AG, one of the leading independent raw materials trading and marketing companies in Germany, today published its 2022 Annual Report.
The HMS 2022 financial year was characterised predominantly by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Western sanctions imposed on Russia, and Europe’s turning away from Russian energy raw materials. Rapidly rising raw material and energy prices and volatile demand markets were the immediate consequences.
In this challenging environment, the advantages of a flexible and internationally broad-based raw materials trading group became evident. HMS Bergbau AG was able to respond quickly to a rapidly changing market environment by adapting its business practices, which included expanding its financing options and making adjustments to its risk management, and thereby exploiting the resulting earnings potential.
The figures reflect the measures successfully implemented in the 2022 financial year. The sales generated by HMS Bergbau AG, for example, more than doubled to almost EUR 1 billion. Earnings recorded an above-average increase at the same time to new record levels.
Sales of EUR 971.9 million were achieved as at 31 December 2022, corresponding to a year-on-year increase of approximately 127 percent. The sharp rise in sales of EUR 544.2 million led to a disproportionate improvement in earnings. EBITDA amounted to EUR 15,354 thousand in the 2022 reporting period, compared to EUR 5,582 thousand in the previous 2021 financial year. Net profit tripled to a level of EUR 10,390 thousand as at 31 December 2022, compared to EUR 3,201 thousand as at 31 December 2021.
Liquidity of around EUR 31.0 million as at the 31 December 2022 reporting date (31 December 2021: EUR 26.0 million) helped further stabilise and expand the existing trading business. At the same time, the significantly stronger cash position opens up additional room for manoeuvre in HMS Bergbau AG’s further development into an internationally responsible, vertically and horizontally positioned raw materials trader.
Due to the economically extremely successful 2022 financial year, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose a significantly higher dividend distribution per bearer share in the amount of EUR 0.77 (previous year: EUR 0.04) to the shareholders for resolution at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 29 August 2023.
Despite the global political turmoil, the management of HMS Bergbau AG continues to assess the medium-term operating outlook as positive. This statement is based on the global increase in energy demand. The Group considers itself well positioned in this respect, above all due to its international trade relations and its local representative offices. Accordingly, the Group is also striving to achieve clearly positive results in the years ahead.
Due to the short-term effects of global geopolitical upheavals, further potentially significant fluctuations in energy and raw material prices are to be expected. Subject to the still unforeseeable consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war, the company is planning sales of around EUR 1 billion in 2023 – despite falling raw material prices – with a gross margin at the previous year’s level of around 3 percent and a positive EBITDA of approx. EUR 15 million.
The Management Board