Strategic Investments and Other Business segment
In addition to strategically important investments, this segment encompasses other investments which are not directly allocated to the other two operative segments. EVN‘s strategic investments include its shareholding in Verbundgesellschaft, BEWAG and BEGAS (held indirectly via the fully consolidated Burgenland Holding AG), as well as EVN‘s stake in Rohöl-Aufsuchungs AG (held indirectly via the fully consolidated RAG-Beteiligungs-AG as well as the at equity consolidated EESU Holding GmbH).
Verbundgesellschaft:
The listed company Verbundgesellschaft is Austria’s leading producer of electricity, and operator of the country’s supra-regional, high-voltage network. Verbundgesellschaft operates 116 own power plants and purchasing rights to third party power stations, with a bottleneck capacity of 8,407 MW and an average output of 24,715 GWh. In 2007, 86 % of the electricity generated by the company was derived from renewable energy sources. In recent years, EVN has massively invested in the expansion of its electricity production capacities in Italy, France and Turkey. EVN has a 12.8 % interest in Verbundgesellschaft. This investment is reported as other financial assets in the balance sheet and classified as “available for sale” in accordance with IAS 39. The dividends paid to EVN are reported under financial results, whereas changes in value are reported as equity of the EVN Group without recognition to profit or loss.
Rohöl-Aufsuchungs AG (RAG):
RAG is Austria’s second largest oil and gas producer, with a share of about 10 % and 30 % respectively of Austria’s total oil and gas production. 60 % of the area in which it carries out exploration work is in Austria, the rest in Bavaria. In addition to gas trading, another important business area for RAG is the storage of natural gas. At present, the existing natural gas storage capacity in Haidach, Upper Austria is being massively expanded in cooperation with the German company WINGAS, a joint venture of the BASF subsidiary Wintershall, and the Russian companies Gazprom and Gazprom Export. The first expansion phase has been in operation since July 2007. Following completion of the second expansion phase in 2011, this storage area will be able to hold up to 2.4bn m³ of natural gas, about one quarter of Austria’s total annual requirements, creating the second largest natural gas storage facility in Central Europe.
Through its 50.05 % stake in RAG-Beteiligungs-AG, EVN has a 37.5 % share in RAG indirectly. RAG Beteiligungs-AG is fully consolidated in the financial statements of the EVN Group. In the first quarter of 2007/08, EVN acquired 25.0 % of RAG through EESU Holding GmbH, a company consolidated at equity in which EVN has a 49.95 % shareholding. As a result, EVN has a 50.03 % stake and thus indirectly owns a majority shareholding in RAG. EVN will continue to consolidate the company at equity, due to a contractual stipulation which does not permit EVN to exert a controlling influence on the company. Following the increase in EVN‘s stake, 87.5 % of the proportional earnings of RAG are reported in the results from operating activities of associates included in the consolidated income statement of the EVN Group as the income from companies included at equity. 49.95 % of the proportional earnings of RAG-Beteiligungs-AG are assigned to minority interest
BEWAG und BEGAS:
At the balance sheet date, EVN had a 72.3 % stake in Burgenland Holding AG, listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, which in turn owns 49.0 % each of the shares in Burgenländische Elektrizitätswirtschafts-AG (BEWAG) and Burgenländische Erdgasversorgungs-AG (BEGAS). BEWAG supplies about 145,000 customers in Burgenland with electricity, and has emerged as the largest Austrian producer of wind-generated power and green electricity, operating 10 wind parks with 138 wind power generating facilities and a total capacity of 241 MW. At present, projects in different development stages in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria are being evaluated or implemented via the subsidiaries of the two firms. BEWAG and BEGAS are consolidated at equity in the consolidated financial statements of the EVN Group. At present, 49.0 % of the proportional earnings of BEWAG and BEGAS are reported in the results from operating activities of associates included in the consolidated income statement of the EVN Group as the income from companies included at equity. 27.7 % of the earnings are assigned to minority interest.
Other Business investments:
The consolidation range of companies reported as Other Business investments primarily relates to operations in the fields of internal facility management and consulting & engineering services on behalf of the EVN Group encompassed in the Utilitas Group, which also coordinates intra-Group services.