Net worth

Long-term assets decreased significantly by € 625.6 million to € 5,929.3 million on account of a decline in plant, property and equipment and well as a drop in participating interests.

The decline in plant, property and equipment in the amount of € 178.8 million can be attributed to scheduled depreciation which exceeded additions totaling € 74.6 million. The group’s investments were essentially limited to replacement and streamlining measures such as the remote control concept for power plant and grid operations.

The item "participating interests” deteriorated, above all, due to the divestment of the EVN shares and the resulting book value debit in the amount of € 240.5 million.

Short-term assets fell by € 84.2 million to € 279.0 million. This was mainly due to the reduction in receivables totaling € 36.3 million as well as a decline in cash items in the amount € 39.4 million.

The shareholders’ equity increased – following the allocation of the annual profits to retained income under consideration of the dividend distribution – by € 174.6 million to € 1,437.6 million. Under application of the "Improvements Project” of the IASB, minority shares were allocated to shareholders’ equity in compliance with IAS 27 and the figures of the previous year were appropriately adjusted.

The long-term liabilities of the group were – on the basis of the debt-clearing strategy of many years – reduced significantly by € 667.9 million to € 3,856.2 million. Long-term financial obligations in Euro and Swiss Francs totaling € 555.3 million were cleared.

The short-term liabilities were also trimmed significantly by € 216.4 million to € 914.5 million. The decline in other liabilities in the amount of € 112.9 million is attributable, above all, to the sale of the EVN shares.

This paved the way for a significant improvement in the group’s capital structure. The balance sheet total was reduced to € 6,206.0 million as a result of the enormous debt clearance in connection with the reduction of non-current assets. The net debt was reduced by € 518.9 million and now lies at € 2,307.7 million. The equity ratio rose from 22.2 % to 27.7 % and net gearing was lowered from 223.8 % to 160.5 %. For the first time, this value is considerably better that the corresponding (average) value of the European suppliers.

Long-term assets were covered to 24.3 % by shareholders’ equity (previous year: 19.3 %) and to 65.0 % (previous year: 69.0 %) by long-term borrowed capital.