Suedzucker sees higher profits in new year, expects to pass on costs (updated)

CropEnergies AG

13/07/2022 10:21

(Adds detail from paragraph four)
    HAMBURG, July 13 (Reuters) - Suedzucker  SZUG.DE  stood by
expectations for higher full year profits despite the impact of
the war in Ukraine, as higher energy and raw materials costs are
expected to be passed on through higher prices, the chief
executive of Europe's largest sugar refiner said on Wednesday.
    Results for the company’s core sugar sector are expected to
improvement further during the financial year that began on
March 1, CEO Niels Poerksen said in the text of a speech to be
made at the company’s online meeting of shareholders on
Thursday.
    He repeated Suedzucker’s forecast made on July 7 for a
2022/23 operating profit of 400 million to 500 million euros
($401 to $501 million), up from 332 million euros the previous
year. 
    Poerksen said the forecast depended on the physical supplies
of energy and raw materials being continued and for the war in
Ukraine to be temporary and not spread.
    Germany is concerned Russia will stop its gas supplies to
the country, threatening disruption to German industry.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2YS0MM  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2YT2FV 
    “Our expectations that we will be able to pass on the
significantly higher prices for raw materials and energy in new
customer contracts will be of decisive importance,” Poerksen
said.
    Suedzucker's sugar sector is expected to break even or show
an operating profit of up to 100 million euros for the full year
 2022/23, compared with a loss of 21 million euros in the
previous year, he said. The group also has extensive non-sugar
interests ranging from pizzas to food ingredients.
    Suedzucker unit CropEnergies  CE2G.DE , which produces the
green fuel bioethanol and has benefited from higher energy
prices, is set to achieve 2022/23 full year operating profits of
between 165 million to 215 million euros against 127 million
euros in the previous year, he said.
    ($1 = 0.9976 euros)

 (Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by Jason Neely & Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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