AGM endorses strategy of the Management Board
Authorisation to take capital measures increases growth opportunities
Hamburg, 28 July 2008 – The first ordinary Annual General Meeting [ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4] following the KTG Agrar AG’s IPO endorsed the strategy of the Management Board. The acts of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board were formally approved by 100 percent of the votes. All other items on the agenda were approved by over 99 percent of the shareholders. Beatrice Ams, founder and majority shareholder, was appointed as new member of the Supervisory Board, while former member Barbara Podas has retired from the controlling body.
Some 80 shareholders and guests attending the AGM in Hamburg heard the Management Board report on a successful fiscal year 2007. KTG Agrar was the first German agricultural company to go public last year. The Management Board is optimistic about the future. Global population growth, changing eating habits and the trend towards organic food are fuelling demand for agricultural commodities while arable land remains a scarce resource.
KTG Agrar cultivates conventional and organic food crops such as grain, maize and rape on some 21,500 hectares. The company plans to continue to invest in new own land as well as to lease land. “By the end of the year, we want to expand our total farmland to over 22,500 hectares,” said Siegfried Hofreiter, CEO of KTG Agrar. In particular, the company wants to increase the percentage of own land in order to generate profits from raising land prices in addition to the principal farming activities.
The shareholders endorsed the company’s growth strategy and authorised the Management Board to issue warrant and convertible bonds and to create conditional capital. “These authorisations give us even greater room for manoeuvre to exploit our growth opportunities,” said CFO Wolfgang Bläsi. The shareholders expressed their satisfaction with the performance of the KTG share, which has clearly outperformed the market in the past months. The shareholders also praised the open-minded and detailed answers given to their questions about the business model and the company’s accounting practice.
The favourable conditions prevailing in the agricultural sector will continue to have a positive effect on the company’s operating performance. Apart from expanding its cultivable land, KTG Agrar plans to boost both its sales revenues and its EBIT margin significantly in the current fiscal year.