2020: A Good Year Despite the Pandemic

As the Chair of the Board of Directors, Frank Dumeier, explained in today’s online press briefing, “Our continued significant increase in production is particularly remarkable, as this year’s wind volume was even a bit below the long-term average. This was only possible thanks to great efforts all levels because the restrictions caused by the pandemic did not make life any easier for our business operations. Our employees demonstrated their commitment, creativity and team spirit once again. What better foundation for our future success strategy and continuous expansion!” 

Consequent capacity expansion 

Aside from the highly professional operations and maintenance management at W.E.B, another key factor to our success was the consequent expansion of the company’s plant portfolio in recent years. Reaching a total production capacity of 523 MW in 2020, W.E.B connected another 20 MW from newly commissioned wind and photovoltaic power plants in Austria and France to the grid. Frank Dumeier: “In the last three years, we were able to add more than 120 MW in plant capacity to our portfolio. Moreover, we already have major expansion projects in the pipeline for the next few years. We currently have eight power plant farms with a capacity of more than 150 MW either under construction or almost ready for construction. These projects, most of which should be put into operation in 2022, will add another 390 GWh to our annual production.” 

Expansion of growth strategy

W.E.B stays on the path towards growth and even takes it up another notch. CFO Michael Trcka: “Numerous initiatives, such as the European Union’s ‘Green Deal’ or the project ‘Next Generation EU’, but also the recently raised reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions to 55 percent by 2030 or the United States’ return to the Paris Agreement encourage us to invest even more commitment into the realization of the energy transition. Despite current delays due to the coronavirus crisis, we considerably expanded our project pipeline to currently 2,000 MW.” Frank Dumeier adds, “Covid-19 clearly demonstrated that humankind is able to quickly adjust to and effectively confront any unforeseen challenges. This lesson reinforces our optimism with regard to what we all need to do against the climate crisis. We sincerely hope that the period of economic reconstruction after the pandemic will be defined by sustainability. After all, the climate crisis will not wait for us.”    

Stable figures, attractive investment 

The key financial figures of W.E.B continue their stable development after 2020. Michael Trcka: “Our sales revenue increased by yet another 2 percent and, just for the second time in a row, surpassed the threshold of EUR 100 million. Our consolidated result of EUR 15.5 million remained a little shy of last year’s due to weaker wind conditions in 2020. Covid-19 had hardly any effect on our figures.”       

The Austrian wind power pioneer’s road to success is impressively reflected in the W.E.B share price, which significantly increased by 11 percent to an average EUR 905.75 in 2020. Michael Trcka: “The investors obviously appreciate the option of a ‘green investment’ in W.E.B. It is no accident that the number of shareholders has grown by 250 to almost 4,400 in the year 2020. We will certainly stay on the path of wide-scale citizen participation – including the capitalization measures we are planning to finance our growth investments for 2021.” 

Planned capital increase and stock split 

At the Annual General Meeting scheduled for May 28, 2021, the W.E.B Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board will propose a resolution for a stock split as well as an increase in share capital. The W.E.B shares would be split at a ration of 1:10, resulting in a nominal value of EUR 10 per share. The emission of young shares (registered shares) against cash contributions would increase the share capital of W.E.B by up to EUR 2,884,530 from currently EUR 28,845,300 to up to EUR 31,729,830. Any further details on how to realize the capital increase would be determined by the W. E.B Board of Directors in coordination with the Supervisory Board. The issue price per share may not fall below EUR 85 using subscription rights or below EUR 95 without the use of subscription rights and may not exceed EUR 105 per share.
The public offer of shares by WEB Windenergie AG is made solely by means and on the basis of the capital market prospectus as approved and published by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (including any supplements) and prepared in accordance with the provisions under prospectus law. 

Legal notice: This message constitutes neither an offer of securities for sale nor a solicitation of an offer to purchase securities by WEB Windenergie AG. It is not intended for release, distribution or publication, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, into or within the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa or any other jurisdiction where it is unlawful to distribute this message. The public offer of shares by WEB Windenergie AG in Austria may only take place after publication of a prospectus prepared in accordance with the provisions under prospectus law. In case of a public offer in Austria, a prospectus will be prepared in accordance with the provisions under prospectus law and, after approval by the Austrian Financial Market Authority, made available at the registered seat of W.E.B at Davidstrasse 1, A-3834 Pfaffenschlag, during regular business hours free of charge. Any decision with regard to investing in shares of WEB Windenergie AG should be exclusively based on such a capital market prospectus.