Norofert Group reports 24 million lei turnover and over 6 million lei in net profit for 2020

Bucharest, February 23, 2021 – Norofert Group, the leading Romanian producer of organic fertilizers reports consolidated sales of 24.4 million lei in 2020, a surge of 64% compared to 2019 result and a net profit of 6.3 million lei, year-on-year increase of 36%. The company, which is quoted on the AeRO market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, ended last year with operating revenue of 31 million lei and EBITDA of 11.4 million lei.

“Last year was unpredictable and challenging. Considering the global pandemic and the local context of a severe drought across Romania, we are pleased to deliver results that exceed the targets set up and approved by our shareholders in April 2020. Apart from growing our business 64% compared to preceding year, in 2020 we have managed to establish a base in the USA, we continued investments in the factory as well as set the ground for introducing a new business line to our Group – cultivating agricultural land. The profits from 2020 will be capitalized and our shareholders will benefit from free shares. For 2021, we set the bar even higher as we aim to reach turnover of 35 million lei in Romania as well as start generating more significant results abroad,” said Vlad Popescu, CEO of Norofert SA.

The improved performance of the Group is primarily attributed to the efforts of the sales team, the increased notoriety of the Norofert brand on the Romanian and international market as well as the growing product offering that now includes complex lines for organic farming, conventional farming as well as hobby gardening. The management attributes the surge in results to the opportunities gained thanks to capital markets financing accessed by the Group between 2019 and 2020. 

In line with Norofert’s dividend policy, the management proposes to the shareholders the capitalization of a part of 2020 profits. The proposal, put to vote in the General Shareholder’s Meeting scheduled for April 20, 2021 will be to increase the share capital of Norofert with approximately 3.4 million lei through issuing up to 8,573,940 new shares with a nominal value of 0.4 lei per share. This means that the shareholders will receive one free share for each share held.

Norofert is currently carrying out capital increase. The company intends to increase its share capital with 550,000 new shares and raise 7.2 million lei. The capital raised will be invested in a state-of-the-art, high-capacity soil fertilizer production line. Following the investment Norofert, become the largest producer of this category of products in Romania. Rest of the capital will be used for increasing the capacity of the production line for the effervescent tablet. Effervescent tablets are projected to be the star product of Norofert USA, LLC, Norofert’s US subsidiary, bringing an important portion of sales on the US market in 2021.

Earlier this week, the Group announced the intention to o acquire a 1,000 hectares farm located in Zimnicea, Teleorman county and consequently introduce a new business line – organic farming. The value of the transaction amounts to 9.5 million lei. The farm is located within a 5 kilometres distance from the Zimnicea Port on the Danube, where Norofert plans to develop a storage capacity for its trading organic cereals business. This loading capacity presents an excellent logistic hub for Norofert’s main business. Any bio crops, either produced or received in exchange for the organic inputs, can be sold for export by the Danube.

Norofert Group is listed on the AeRO market since March 2020. In 2020, shares of Norofert were the most traded financial instruments on the AeRO market.  On February 23rd, 2021 prior to publishing the preliminary financial results, Norofert shares traded at a price of 28.4 lei per share. Consequently, the market capitalization of Norofert reached 228 million lei.

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About Norofert SA

Norofert Group (BVB: NRF) is a leading Romanian producer of organic agricultural products and an experienced player on the Romanian farming market. Established in 2000 as a family business, the company was initially the importer of high-quality fertilizers from Western markets to Romania. In 2015, with Vlad Popescu taking up the reins, Norofert started producing bio-fertilizers, organic phytosanitary products such as insecticides and fungicides as well as seed and foliar treatments using its original recipes. Today, Norofert is a group of companies that include a line for organic farming (Norofert Organic), a line for conventional agriculture (Karisma) and a hobby gardening and small organic farmers line (Norofert Fito). On March 3rd, 2020 the company’s shares floated on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and has been since then traded on the AeRO market under “NRF” symbol.