Corporate | 4 April 2013 09:52
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Ekotechnika GmbH / Key word(s): Bond/Issue of Debt
Distributor of agriculture equipment Ekotechnika issues a corporate bond with a yield of 9.75% per year – Russia's largest distributor of agriculture equipment set for continued growth – EUR 60 million issue to be used to refinance debt and expand location network – Start of subscription at the Stuttgart stock exchange (Bondm) expected on 29 April 2013 – Chief supplier, John Deere, pushing ahead its Russian business
'With our bond investors benefit from the megatrend agriculture in the world's largest country,' says Wolfgang Bläsi, managing director of Ekotechnika GmbH. 'Ekotechnika continues to benefit from the pent-up demand for modern equipment in the Russian agricultural sector. Being one of the top three John Deere distributor in Europe, Ekotechnika has a strong market position which it wants to expand.' Apart from sales of new equipment, the company will drive its growth through such high-margin businesses as spare parts sales, after-sales services and used equipment trading. The combined size of Ekotechnika's three sales regions in Russia – Central Russia, Chernozem Region and Siberia – is equivalent to that of Germany, Italy and France combined. In the financial year 2011/12 (period ended 30 September), the company recorded healthy growth and sold almost 2000 new machines. Sales grew by just under 21% to EUR 169.6 million. The group's operating result (EBIT) came in at EUR 15.4 million, up 380% on the prior year. Cash flow from operations amounted to EUR 18.3 million in the period. Ekotechnika predominantly sells agriculture equipment made by world industry leader John Deere, which accounted for more than two thirds of 2011/12 sales. In addition, the company's range includes 13 other leading manufacturers of agricultural equipment including German makers such as GEA, BvL and Grimme. Spare parts sales and after-sales services already contributed EUR 25.5 million and EUR 3.3 million, respectively, to Group sales, and the trend is pointing sharply upwards in these segments. Dr. Wolfgang Köllner, member of the management team of the Russian subsidiary, says: 'Going forward to 2016, we want to double the number of new machines sold and treble our revenues from spare parts sales and after-sales services. In addition, the Russian market for used machinery is still quite young and offers great potential.' Agricultural machinery remained one of the fastest growing sectors of industry worldwide in 2012. According to German engineering association VDMA, the global volume rose by approximately 8% to EUR 86 billion. Being the world's largest country, Russia is considered by international manufacturers to be one of the markets offering the greatest potential. This is why John Deere is undertaking a major expansion of its product range for Russia as well as its local capacities. Wolfgang Bläsi says: 'Our bond is ideally suited to put our growth programme on a stable medium-term foundation. The proceeds will essentially be used to optimise our funding structure as well as to expand our network of locations.'
End of Corporate News The picture belonging to this press release can be found here: http://newsfeed2.equitystory.com/ekotechnika/205990.html Caption: Ekotechnika ist einer der Top 3 John Deere Händler in Europa 04.04.2013 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. DGAP’s Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de |
| 205990 04.04.2013 |