Agricover Holding S.A. publishes financial results for 2020
2020 was marked by the historic shock of the global SARS-COV-2 pandemic and the continuing African Swine Fever pandemic, which negatively impacted important segments of the agriculture and food industry, and by extreme weather conditions that affected the production of many farmers in the south and east of the country.
Liviu Dobre, CEO of Agricover Holding S.A. says: "Agricover Group has successfully overcome this stress test, demonstrating once again the resilience of its business model and its ability to absorb major shocks. The Group has fulfilled its mission, honouring its commitments to its partners and helping to keep important supply chains in operation, with a major impact on agriculture and food security for the population. Last but not least, the Agricover Group has achieved notable results and generated value for shareholders and other stakeholders."
The main consolidated financial results were:
Consolidated revenue (including interest and commission income related to the Agrifinance segment) of RON 1,639.1 million, down 2.0% (2019: RON 1,673.3 million)
Consolidated profit from continuing operations of RON 77.3 million, up 61.6% (2019: RON 47.8 million)
Earnings per share from continuing operations of 0.034 in 2020 compared to 0.021 in 2019.
"These achievements are not by chance, they are the result of the execution of the Group's strategic development plan, focused on discontinuing activities that have become non-performing due to the predictable evolution of the agricultural sector, and on reallocating resources to the development of strategic business lines, which make an effective contribution to accelerating the technological progress of farmers, supported by specialized financing solutions and to the development of a sustainable and responsible agriculture towards the environment and society", Liviu Dobre added.
Analysis of consolidated financial results and by business segment
Total revenues decreased in 2020, due to lower sales in the Agrifood segment, amid the company's reorientation towards the production and marketing of high value-added products at the expense of less profitable products. Thus, the main results achieved by the Agrifood segment were:
Abatorul Periș S.A.:
Total revenues of RON 329.1 million, down 1.5% (2019: RON 333.9 million);
Net profit of RON 6.2 million, up 135.7% (2019: RON -17.4 million).
The other business segments increased and their financial performance improved. The main financial results of the Agrifinance and Agribusiness segments were:
Agricover Credit IFN S.A.:
Value of loans and advances granted (net amounts) up 9.4% to RON 1,643.3 million (2019: RON 1,501.4 million);
Net profit of RON 42.1 million, up 14.4% (2019: RON 36.8 million)
Agricover S.A., results from continuing operations:
Total revenue of RON 1,139.7 million, up 2.8% (2019: RON 1,109.1 million)
Net profit of RON 29.8 million, up 12.4% (2019: RON 26.6 million)
Financing of Agricover Group's activity
During 2020, Agricover Group financed its operations by borrowing from commercial banks, international financial institutions, investment funds and reinvesting the majority of the profit earned. Thus, the evolution of the capital structure was:
Net debt of RON 1,397.0 million, up 3.9% (2019: RON 1,344.3 million)
Equity of RON 499.3 million, up 12.9% (2019: RON 442.1 million)
Under these circumstances, the ratio of total net debt to equity improved from 3.04 in 2019 to 2.8 in 2020.
Future prospects
Agricover Group will continue to execute its strategic development plan aimed at organically increasing its market share and achieving or consolidating a "market leader" position in all its business segments.
Agricover Holding S.A. is a holding company and represents the vehicle through which the four entities of the group are owned, namely Agricover S.A. (specialized in the distribution of agricultural technologies), Agricover Credit IFN S.A. (non-banking financial institution specialized in financing farmers), Abatorul Periș S.A. (specialising in pig slaughtering and pork processing) and Agricover Technology S.R.L. (through which the Group intends, from 2022, to provide farmers with access to the latest innovations in global agriculture and, in practice, facilitate a transformation in the way they do business through access to digital technologies).
At present, more than 1,000 employees work in Agricover Holding S.A. subsidiaries. The group serves a portfolio of over 6,000 active farming customers, who farm over 2.2 million hectares of arable land nationwide.
The majority shareholder of Agricover Holding is Jabbar Kanani, with a stake of 87.269% of the subscribed and paid-up share capital. Another major shareholder is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which holds 12.727% of Agricover Holding's shares. Adama Agriculture B.V., a member of the Syngenta Group, one of the world's largest producers of plant protection products and certified seeds, holds 10.000% of the shares in Agricover S.A..