Corporate | 26 May 2004 08:01

EVN AG – Development of business in the first half year of 2003/04

Corporate-news announcement processed and sent by DGAP. The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– 26 May 2004 EVN AG – Development of business in the first half year of 2003/04 (October 1, 2003 – March 31, 2004) – Increase in electricity, heating, water and waste incineration sales revenues. – Operating result (EBIT) considerably improved. – Marked improvement in the result from investments. – Period net result significantly higher than in the preceding year. – Positive perspectives in the new water and waste incineration business segments. – Realisation of the “Austrian electricity solution” imminent. 2003/04 Change HY. 1 % EUR m Sales revenues 1) 687.9 +0.1 Operating result (EBIT) 154.1 +10.9 Result before tax 166.7 +15.5 Period net result 118.0 +21.2 1) From January 1, 2003, excluding gas key account sales and trading due to the transfer to EconGas Result The EVN operating result (EBIT) for the first half of 2003/04 stood at EUR 154.1 m, which was 10.9% higher than the comparable figure of the preceding year mostly due to the contributions to results of the new water and thermal waste treatment segments. At EUR 12.5 m, on balance, the financial result was clearly up on the preceding year. This was due largely to the improvement in the result from investments, which derived primarily from the valuation at equity of BEWAG, BEGAS and EconGas. In addition, the dividend payments from both Verbundgesellschaft and Energie AG were higher. In total, at EUR 166.7 m, the result before tax was 15.5% above the comparable figure for the preceding year. The period net result improved by 21.2% to EUR 118.0 m. Earnings per share (EPS) rose by 21.2% to EUR 3.14. Outlook EVN CEO Rudolf Gruber, “The result for the first half of 2003/04, which for the first time contains notable contributions from our business segments water and thermal waste treatement, confirms the growing significance of these infrastructure areas to future company development. The EVN Group has highly specialised know-how in the infrastructure fields of energy, water and thermal waste treatment. Due to the dynamic growth potential in Austria and abroad the water and thermal waste treatment sectors should provide up to one-third of total EVN Group sales and results in the medium-term and thus ensure that the future earnings capacity of the Group remains at a high level. As a consequence of the highly seasonal nature of business in the energy sectors, EVN development in the first half cannot simply be extrapolated to the 2003/04 financial year as a whole. On the basis of the half-year result 2003/04, we expect a positive development for the full financial year 2003/04.” EVN’s Letter to Shareholders for the 1st half year 2003/04 can be downloaded from http://www.investor.evn.at . For further information contact: Mr. Georg Waldner (Investor Relations Officer) Tel. +43 2236 200 12718 Dr. Michael Längle (Chief Financial Officer) Tel. +43 2236 200 12324 Note to editors: EVN is a leading integrated Austrian energy and infrastructure company, which provides some one million customers in Lower Austria, the country’s largest federal province, with electricity, gas, heat, water, waste incineration and related services on a one-stop shop basis using highly modern infrastructure. In an increasingly competitive market environment, EVN has turned to partnerships with other Austrian energy companies in the electricity and gas areas and has thus successfully established a competitive international position in the fields of energy trading and sales. With its most recent acquistion, the German water services company WTE, EVN Group is now present in 11 CEE countries. end of message, (c)DGAP 26.05.2004 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 074105; ISIN: AT0000741053; Index: ATX Listed: Amtlicher Handel in Wien; Amtlicher Markt in Frankfurt (General Standard, WKN 878279) und München; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen und Stuttgart 260801 Mai 04