CR Energy published its FY ’23 report, displaying figures slightly ahead of the prelims published in March. In detail: 

FY ’23 sales, which refers mainly to income from the investment business, came in at € 68.8m, implying a 14% yoy decline. The decline can be mainly explained by lower valuation gains across the holding portfolio, which were however partly set off by a strong increase (+78% to € 29.8m) of cash contributions from the holding companies.

On this basis, FY EBIT came in at € 66.4m (prelims: € 65m), implying a 70bp margin improvement to 96.8%, which was driven by reduced personnel expenses (-30bps yoy) as well as other OpEx (-30bps yoy). On top of this, CR Energy continues to be highly cash generative, as CFO increased by 42% yoy to € 23.5m, equaling € 4.16 per share.  

Yet, the company recently announced that it will propose to the AGM to issue bonus shares instead of paying a cash dividend. In detail, management intends to issue new shares to existing shareholders at a ratio of 1:3 by transferring € 17.7m from retained earnings to the capital reserve. Management also stated, that it will return to paying out cash dividends in the years ahead.

Besides this, one highlight of the release is clearly the announced intention to launch a European Long Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) vie subsidiary CR Opportunities. In addition to Terrabau's real estate projects, CR Opportunities as asset manager also plans to purchase suitable existing properties for the fund and to optimize their energy efficiency using Solartec's expertise. Hence, with this new project CR Energy once again capitalizes on the strong synergies between its holding companies. The fund will be launched during the remainder of the year, and it is intended to grow AUM by € 100m per year until 2027. In addition to institutional investors, private investors will also be able to invest in the product via a participation bond.

The stock remains a BUY, unchanged € 48 PT based on DDM. Mind you, our current valuation model does not yet include the possible issuance of bonus shares following the AGM in June.