German conglomerate BayWa’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) has fallen to €144.7m over the 2016 financial year (FY2016), down on the €158.1m it posted in 2015.
The company has pointed to “persistently difficult” agricultural markets over the past year for the decline.
Overall revenue generated by BayWa’s business divisions climbed to around €15.3bn over FY2016, thereby posting a slight increase on 2015(€14.9bn).
In a release issued over the weekend, the company said its fruit and energy business units performed strongly over the reporting year, although a comfortable supply situation with agricultural commodities worldwide intensified the pressure on prices.
“BayWa was also unable to escape this trend, meaning that the agriculture business was not able to live up to the expectations,” said Klaus Josef Lutz, chief executive of BayWa AG.
“Once again, however, we benefited from our broad footing within the group. In particular, the international fruit business and renewable energies posted very favourable development and had a positive effect on total earnings.”
Lutz took an optimistic view of the current financial year.
“The positive prospects overall, in agricultural trade as well, lead us to expect significant increases in earnings again in 2017.”
BayWa will publish detailed figures on its FY2016 performance, along with its balance sheet, on 30 March 2017.
