2019: Another strong year

Best production results in corporate history | Production volume clearly above previous year’s | Significant increase in sales and output | Annual General Meeting postponed to September 18 :

Austrian wind power pioneer continues on road to success in anniversary year

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, WEB Windenergie AG was not only able to accomplish 500 MW in plant capacity and EUR 100 million in sales but also exceeded the “magical” threshold of 1terawatt hour (1,000 GWh) in the production of renewable energy. “The year 2019 was another remarkable year for W.E.B,” as the Chair of the Board of Directors, Frank Dumeier, attested at today’s online press talk. “We had the great honor of celebrating not one but two anniversaries together with numerous prominent guests from Austria and abroad – 25 years of W.E.B and 20 years as a stock corporation. And if that was not enough, we also achieved two important milestones in plant capacity and sales revenue. Our success confirms our strategy as defined by the continuous expansion of plant capacity in both Austria and our international markets.” 

Consequent capacity expansion 

Aside from the highly professional operations and maintenance management at W.E.B, another key factor to this success was the consequent expansion of the company’s plant portfolio in recent years. In 2019 W.E.B increased its overall plant capacity by almost 60 MW, including the first W.E.B wind farm in Italy and the first W.E.B project in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Frank Dumeier: “We were able to realize five new projects in five countries in 2019. In the last two years, we added more than 100 MW in plant capacity to our portfolio, which – of course – paved the way for a corresponding increase in production. And by the way, we have been generating more electricity abroad than in Austria since 2018.”

Expansion of growth strategy 

W.E.B stays on the path towards growth. CFO Michael Trcka: “Increasing global support for the Fridays-for-Future movement, the ‘Green Deal’ of the new president of the European Commission and the ambitious environmental goals of the current Austrian federal government encourage us to invest even more motivation and commitment into the realization of the energy transition. Despite current delays due to the coronavirus crisis, we will focus on the expansion of our growth strategy in the years to come.” Frank Dumeier adds, “This year’s Covid-19 pandemic raised global awareness for the fragile state of our lives on this planet and reminded us that we need to do everything we can to protect this delicate balance – also in terms of our climate. We are convinced that the energy transition as well as the further expansion of renewables will continue at great pace after the crisis. That is also true, for example, of the largest wind farm project of W.E.B in Ariano, Italy, for which we were awarded the contract in January 2020.”  

Direct marketing still on a tear 

This dynamic development is further characterized by the innovative marketing model of electricity produced by W.E.B as “W.E.B Green Energy”. After concluding a contract with the Diocese Graz-Seckau with about 1,500 meter points in 2018, W.E.B was able to increase the number of supplied meter points by 147 percent to almost 6,500 in 2019. Approximately 70 GWh were sold directly to customers in the past year. Michael Trcka: “The Austrian Ecolabel and our traditionally excellent position in the annual electricity supplier check of WWF and GLOBAL 2000, which once again awarded W.E.B the title of ‘driver of the electricity future’, are certainly a great advantage.” 

Stable figures, attractive investment 

The key financial figures of W.E.B are still stable and reliable after 2019. Michael Trcka: “Our sales revenue increased by approximately 22 percent thanks to our higher production results, and our consolidated result amounted to EUR 16.5 million. That is the best result we ever had in corporate history.” 
The great appreciation of investors for W.E.B became clear not only in the course of 2019 due to the significant increase by 30 percent in the W.E.B share price, but once more also in the successful issue of two new wind power bonds. Michael Trcka: “We generated EUR 14.6 million in 2019. This repeated success demonstrates that our green investments are able to present investors with a highly appealing offer. It is no accident that the number of shareholders and bond investors has grown to about 6,100; we even exceeded the threshold of 4,000 shareholders in 2019. We will certainly stay on the path of wide-scale citizen participation.”  

Annual General Meeting postponed 

The measures around Covid-19 made it necessary for us to postpone the Annual General Meeting scheduled for May until September 18, 2020. The ex-dividend date will not change and is still set for May 22, 2020. “We hope that Covid 19 will have retreated by mid-September, so we can then host the Meeting with everyone there. As W.E.B is based on wide-scale citizen participation, direct contact and exchange with our shareholders is particularly important to us,” according to Michael Trcka.