DE Klaus Josef Lutz BayWa

Klaus Josef Lutz

BayWa AG has announced its results for the first nine months of 2017, revealing increases in revenue and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT).

Revenue at the international trading and services group came to approximately €12bn at the end of the third quarter, while EBIT climbed to €90.3m.

According to BayWa, the improvement in earnings was carried by all three core operating segments: Agriculture, Energy and Building Materials.

In terms of Agriculture, the positive development of agricultural equipment business overcompensated in particular for the weather-related losses in fruit trading.

Fruit trading activities failed to match the level of the previous year due to a delay to the marketing season for overseas apples due to weather conditions and the failed harvest in Germany and Europe; in addition, the previous year had benefited from a one-off effect from the sale of a T&G Global Limited shareholding.

“The process of recovery in the Agriculture Segment has continued and we expect further gains in the final quarter,” said Klaus Josef Lutz, CEO of BayWa.

“All in all, we believe that we will carry this positive performance through to the fourth quarter and generate significant year-on-year increases in full-year revenues and EBIT,” added Lutz.