Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of BayWa, I would like to welcome you to our Virtual Conference on the Results of the Financial Year 2021. As you can see, with me today are Professor Klaus Josef Lutz, our CEO, Andreas Helber, our CFO, and Marcus Pöllinger, management board member responsible for the operational segments Building, Agri, Trade and Services, Agri Equipment, and Energy. As always, Professor Lutz will go through the group highlights and the development of each segment in the reporting year. Mr. Helber will focus on the financials. After that, we will have time for Q&As. Before we proceed, please give me a minute to explain how the Q&A session technically works. After the presentation, you will need to switch on your camera later when I ask you to do so. This will be a signal for us that you would like to speak.
As soon as you see your picture enlarged on the broadcast window, we will ask you to activate your microphones. If you prefer to ask your questions in writing, please use the question function below the broadcast image, which is permanently available for you to use. I will now hand over to Professor Klaus Josef Lutz.
Good morning, everybody, and warm welcome also from my side, and thank you for your time for our annual financial statements for 2021. Before I start with the presentation of the figures and especially also the outlook for 2022, I would like to comment and explain what happened two days ago. Our supervisory board decided that as of April 1, we will have a new CEO for the BayWa Corporation. This is Marcus Pöllinger. Marcus is meanwhile since 2008 with BayWa. He was my first personal assistant here in the company. You'll see this is typical BayWa approach to develop managers and to try to get new people in key positions coming from the bottom of the organization.
I'm very happy and proud of having Markus on board already for a few years and now becoming my successor next year. The second decision of the supervisory board was that I will succeed Manfred Nüssel, our Chairman of the Supervisory Board, in case that the election during the AGM in 2023 will be positive for me. I will get the majority due to the fact that we have two key shareholders in BayWa I expect to be elected. Just to answer a question which maybe will come up during our session this morning with regard to any compliance issues and the German Corporate Governance Code and so forth.
We are absolutely in line with the German corporate law, the corporate governance codes, and so forth because we have two key shareholders with more than 25% of shares. In so far it is absolutely clear, legally aligned with the German corporate act that I can follow Mr. Nüssel immediately after giving up the position as CEO to be chairman of the supervisory board. In so far that's completely clear and has nothing to do with any compliance discussions and issues. This is not my last presentation of the annual report. Very last one will be then next year. Markus is with us in case you have very special questions regarding his responsibilities within the BayWa Group. He is more than happy to answer the questions.
If not, I will take action. Now we go through. By the way, I'm very happy. I saw before we started our analyst conference, that we are now on the level of 2007 with the share price today. So I don't know, should we continue or stop here? Because you know the figures. No, we go through the annual report and the financial statements for 2021. First of all, we turn to the highlights. This is page four. I would like to summarize what were the highlights in 2021. Of course, we were faced and confronted with this pandemic situation.
Also in the last quarter, the discussion regarding this awful war in the Ukraine, which is affecting us much more in 2022, of course, and I will comment on that a little bit later. I think the management decisions and also our crisis management regarding the COVID-19 situation was very good. We had the situation always under control, and we started already in March 2020 with our crisis management and the crisis board.
I implemented here that we can protect the people, our stakeholders and especially of course the employees of BayWa all over the world. From a business point of view, besides the operational super results we provide to you this morning, the closing for the BayWa r.e. AG capital increase and the investment of our friends in Zurich in Switzerland, the Energy Infrastructure Partners AG with EUR 530 million for 49% was one of our key achievements in 2021. Our finance department, maybe Andreas is going to comment on that a little bit later. It was a great success to agree upon a syndicated finance loan agreement with six different banks with an amount of EUR 1.7 billion.
This is really unique in our history because normally we don't have such a syndicated loan. Another highlight from the financial point of view was the replacement of a bonded loan with EUR 350 million. A few months ago, we started, as it is quite normal in stock-listed companies and in also privately held companies of course, we started again a corporate strategy process to review whether the strategy we started 14 years ago, and the strategy was adapted every three years, more or less, is still valid, is still the right one to follow. We discussed a plan till 25, and the headline for all the adjustments we made is not a significant fundamental change in our strategy for 25. The headline is Sustainable Solutions for Life.
Insofar, all the business segments we have in our BayWa group will much more focus on the sustainability approach in the future as we did in the past. Nevertheless, it is very important to understand that BayWa was always a green company, a sustainable company, and we discussed sustainability among the management members here and with our shareholders and stakeholders. We started the sustainability discussion where other people did not really understand how to spell sustainability. The unicorn creation of BayWa r.e. AG is one of our key achievements regarding sustainability.
Our ultimate goal for the next years will be that our forecast, so to say, or the budget in principle for 2025 will be that we can offer then to the capital market, to the shareholder, stakeholders, and so forth, an operational result of around about EUR 400 million. Which is another dimension, of course, for BayWa and also for the shareholders as we had 14 years ago. Now let's come to the figures, the hard facts, so to say. We have an increase of revenue 25%, nearly EUR 20 billion, and the EBIT is EUR 260.6 million. That's a real EBIT figure, by the way. It's not adjusted or operational, whatever. In so far, hard facts.
It is important to understand that more or less every business segment supported this increase of revenue and EBIT. The Cefetra Group, our international grain trading and specialty company located in Rotterdam, had an increase of nearly 80%. Building materials, which is really sensational, an upside of 56%, and renewable energy, as we were able to provide in the past to you year by year, another increase of 21.7%. The agri trade and service business unit generates again, and that's a type of turnaround, positive contribution to the earnings. I think it has to do with the market development, but also the restructuring actions we have taken to come back on track.
For you, capital market, I think the EPS is very interesting and also very important. We can offer to you EUR 1.63 in comparison to 0.66 EUR in the previous fiscal year, and the dividend is going to be increased by 5 cents to EUR 1.05 per share. Of course, the prerequisite for that is a decision in the AGM session, which will be, I think, in May or in the beginning of June. Due to the fact that we have 2 key shareholders and we are clear on the side of a share increase shouldn't be a surprise during the AGM. The share price increase regarding ultimo December 31 was 16.6%.
Meanwhile, we are on a much higher level. Now I go through these slides a little bit faster. You know this comparison over the last years, the multiyear comparison for the EBIT. Indeed, in 2021, very good performance. The same regarding the expansion progress over the last 14 years. 67%, that's expansion based, and 33% of the operating EBIT is from BayWa AG and Austria. We turn to page 8 and 9, the business segment Energy. We start on the left side with the market developments and the market view on renewable energy. Here we have the green and the gray split. The green part is solar business on a global basis, and the gray one, the onshore wind energy.
There's no change to the last analyst conference a few months ago. The capital investment for onshore wind facilities and solar facilities is on a very high level. The tendency is intact. We are really on track with all our decisions we have taken regarding renewable energy. On the right side, you see that's not a surprise. Big discussion at this point in time, the development for the Brent crude oil and heating oil prices all over the world and especially in Germany and Austria. The next part on the bottom is the sale of heating oil and wood pellets is more or less balanced. The loss in volume on the heating oil has been compensated by wood pellets.
Insofar, the decision to focus in the energy sector more and more also on sustainable energy sources has come true and is a success story as well. Let's have a look to the figures. Renewable energy, not a surprise, EUR 3.5 billion revenue and EUR 135 million EBIT. The increase of revenues is coming especially from the solar trade activity and the energy trading, where we are very successful in 2021 and also the start in 20, 2022 was very positive. We sold a lot of solar and wind facilities. Nevertheless, we postponed also some projects to be sold, and we started especially the IPP portfolio strategy, which is part of the agreement with EIP in Zurich.
The outlook for 2022, very positive, and we expect another highlight for the capital market. The energy segment, we have an increase in revenue, EUR 2.1 billion. The basis or the reason for that is the increase of oil prices especially, and a decrease in the EBIT, down to EUR 17.4 million. We are ahead of plan, lower than last year. So far we are very happy and pleased with the development. We expect that our investments in the LNG, liquid natural gas, fuel stations, we will complete more and more stations we are building at this point in time. This will be one significant part for the future and the other one, the pellet business.
As I said, the transformation of this business unit from very, let me say, dirty business-oriented focus to more sustainability-oriented focus, here we are on track as well. We come to the agri business. First of all, where are we in the market developments at this point in time, and especially in 2021, of course? We are reporting 2021. You'll see already in the end of 2021 an increase for the commodities and the same also in the agri resources. On the right side, the global grain balance sheet as always. What you can see here is we do not really have a storage, a high storage. If there is a storage, we assume that the grain storage is especially with China.
For the question what's going to happen if the harvest of Ukraine and exports from Russia are not possible and we have a default, what is going to happen in this world, especially in North Africa, in some Arab countries, is absolutely crucial and very important to be discussed. An immediate replacement of volumes which are not coming, where we think they will not come from Ukraine and Russia, can't be put in place immediately. Let's have a look at the financials of Cefetra. Cefetra has nearly EUR 5 billion revenue and a significant increase on the EBIT side, EUR 39 million. This is very important because, as you know, or many of you know, we decided a few years ago that we split our activity in Cefetra.
We have the commodity trading, the classical one, and on the other side, we invested money in smaller companies more or less all over the world. The last one was in Dubai with Sedaco to focus more on specialties like vitamins, minerals for the compound feed industry and some other specialties. The idea was to have a split 50/50 on the basis of the result, 50% commodity and 50% specialty. Now it's a little bit different. It's more specialty than commodity. This is the reason why we are very successful and also the next years will be very successful from my point of view because specialties show much more stability in the profit and yield development as the commodity business, which is very volatile.
We come to the operating resources or agri resources. Here you see on the left side the price development of the fertilizer. The fertilizer, of course, is crucial for the output opportunity and possibility, and the yield for the agri soil. This increase created on the one side a sales decline for us, but on the other side, we had some windfall profits due to the long position we had and still have in the fertilizer business. Let's have a look at the figures. You see Agri Trade & Services. That's Germany, Austria, and some Eastern European countries which belong to the European Union. Of course, that's EUR 4.1 billion revenue, and the EBIT is EUR 12.3 million.
Of course, you can say due to the capital employed and capital invest, EUR 12.3 million is not really high. That's true. The last years we had always losses. Last year, EUR 14.3 million. Now the turnaround. I would say I think I know exactly that the actions Marcus Pöllinger has taken together with the new young team, especially here in Germany, now shows us that we did the right thing and it's a part of our, let me say, financial harvest we can bring in. The next one is the development in the agri equipment, our machinery business. You see that the revenue is still increasing 16% from the overall market perspective here in Germany. New registrations for tractors is also up 8%.
In other words, the farmers are still willing or are more willing to invest in equipment, in technology, in machinery, and this is typical for a crisis on the one side, but also that's typical if the farmers have enough liquidity to invest. Let's have a look at the result side for the agri business. Revenue is more or less flat, EUR 1.9 billion, and EUR 48.6 million for the machinery result. We are above plan, like in the energy sector, a little bit below the previous year, which was extremely extraordinary EBIT in 2020. So far I'm very happy. The outlook is for 2022, we have a high order book position at this point in time.
The so-called Bauernmilliarde in Germany, which is EUR 1 billion to be spent for the farmers, will boost the demand for machinery, for devices, for equipment. So far, the forecast for 2022 is very positive as well. We come to our global produce business. Here you see on the left side the volume for apples especially is more or less on the same level as last year. In New Zealand, we had a decrease due to some unpleasant weather events, a little decrease. Then, of course, there were not enough workers available for the harvest due to the pandemic crisis. Insofar, the volume was down.
Nevertheless, if you turn to the next page, you see that we are even a little bit better from the EBIT result in 2021, EUR 42.6 million, and the revenue is up 2%, EUR 960 million. The outlook is for Turners & Growers for 2022, we are right now in the harvest season. The increase of volumes and also the quality of our goods are going to be better than in the last year. Then, we expect a higher volume also from TFC Holland in Maassluis in the Netherlands. We are, as you know, sourcing tropical fruits all over the world and especially in Latin America, so the expectation is very positive. At this point in time, we see also a positive development for the sale of organic foods in Germany.
Nevertheless, we have some energy and logistics issues to manage higher costs and the availability of containers, especially. The next point is the Building Materials sector. Here you see the overall market development, especially in Germany, is very positive. I do not need to jump in the details here because it's no change to the last analyst conference. It's a very positive situation. We have a market boom, and you see this reflected in the picture of our P&L statement for the Building Materials business. We have a 10% up in the revenue, more than EUR 2 billion. This is really very interesting because we restructured the Building Materials segment over the last years.
As you know, we had a cut in revenue due to the sale of operations in Northern Germany, and now we are back more than EUR 2 billion and a record high of profit with EUR 73.2 million. Those of you who are with us for many years, you know exactly that I always said if we have, for the corporation, the Building Materials sector, EUR 50 million, I'm more than happy. Now it's EUR 73 million. Of course, it has to do with the building boom in Central Europe and especially here in Germany, of course. On the other hand, there are some changes in the assortment of the products, and the restructuring process was very successful. Marcus Pöllinger and his team is responsible for that.
As you know, we started a BayWa project development company for building apartment houses. There's the first part with round about EUR 5 million included in the profitability here of the Building Material segment. We expect much more also to get a more stable and sustainable profit situation in the Building Material segment. Last but not least, nevertheless, it's always a loss situation, as you know, because we are still investing a lot of money in software packages, in the infrastructure for the digitalization process and FarmFacts to provide to the farmers the best-in-class software applications they need. Nevertheless, don't be shocked due to the 2021 result with minus 20.
We had some write-offs here, regarding the applications and software packages where we thought we can use the excellent operational performance of BayWa to clear this position, so to say. The outlook for 2022 is we have to continue more or less on a lower loss, which is an investment situation. The overall picture operationally, excellent performance. Every business segment contributed significantly to the overall picture and the overall profit. The outlook for 2022, I'm coming back to that a little bit later. Bottom line, I'm very, very happy and very pleased with this performance. Now we are looking to the group financials, and I hand over to Andreas Helber.
Yes, sir, Klaus, thank you. Yeah, good morning to everybody listening and looking here at the screen. Maybe also from my side, a review on the result and judgment on what we have here for 2021. Firstly, it has been a very challenging year also for us, for the finance department, for the finance organization, with completing the three transaction Klaus mentioned. The first one was the very important step in of EIP in March with a flow of EUR 530 million into the RE business as a capital increase in RE. Secondly, of course, the two structural transactions on the financing side, the syn loan that has been implemented in September and lately this year, EUR 350 million on the bonded loan.
That has been the, from the financial side, very important. Nevertheless, looking on the result number, and I see it in a row of the last couple of years and the beginning of a period Claus mentioned, the expression of financial harvest. I like this very much. It's a kind of fruit-taking that we are going into, reflecting what has been planted over the last decade. These things are getting more and more successful. That's also important for you guys because we now have to reflect on the new target, the EUR 400 million-EUR 450 million EBIT target until 2025. Because I know with the share price that we are currently seeing here being over 46 in the moment, that brings your models to the limit.
We probably have to provide new guidance also or kind of guidance on the result number. The EUR 400-450 million mostly reflects the business development and the ongoing very successful business development of the renewable energy business in its all. This is quite important. Share price was up since February, since the war in the Ukraine start by nearly 30%. This is quite important if we look on the ongoing share price development. If we look on the financials again on the business units, you know we have changed a little bit the reporting line. We reporting now business units and segments. The segments are the three, or the two in their renewable energy and the classical energy.
These are the segments now, and they are forming a business unit, energy. You see the overall performance, EBIT-wise with EUR 150 million. In that, the EUR 135 million of renewable energy business. In fact, the performance of renewable energy in the BayWa r.e. AG was much better. It was EUR 162 million, and this is the number that we also will communicate if you look on the RE business. It includes down to EUR 135 million one-timers, the one-timers that we already reported throughout the years, in the completion of the transaction with the capital increase, as well as some write-offs that we took on the biogas business, around EUR 13 million, including also the losses that they provided last year in. We prepare these biogas facilities.
These have not been given over to the renewable energy business itself. They were kept back in BayWa AG and will be brought to the market in 2022. Next on the agri business. Once again, the summary of all the four segments Klaus reported on, with an EBIT of EUR 142 million, including the better performance, of course, of the agri domestic business not being in a state where we expect them to be in the future, but made good progress coming from the previous year. If you remember the old strategy, the old goal that we gave in the old strategy, the EUR 150 million contribution on the agri segment. We are nearly there. With the performance which is coming up in 2022, I think we will easily also exceed it in the coming year.
Finally, of course, building material. Yeah. All words have already been said on that business. It's outstanding, the EUR 73 million. Even the EUR 46 million that we showed the year before was nearly on the level of EUR 50 million that we expect to have. 73, it's outstanding, it's very good, and it is of course the result of a very successful restructuring process, the building materials segment, with Marcus and the team went through in the last years. Looking on the overall income statement, putting that all together, the total revenue of nearly EUR 20 billion on turnover. Of course, price-driven, mainly through the agri segment, but also through the energy trading, both in the classical conventional energy segment, but also in the renewable energy business. EBIT up at nearly 267.
To be very honest, we made a very conservative approach on the balance sheet and on the income statement this year. You saw on the digitalization segment some write-offs. You saw it in the renewable energy, but also in other segments. We took some good risks out and all of that. The underlying result was much better than the EUR 267, which gave us the headroom to do something also in advance of the years to come. Earnings before tax at EUR 160 with a consolidated net profit of EUR 129, tremendously higher than the previous years. That leads us also to an earnings per share of EUR 1.63 compared to the EUR 0.66 last year.
What we overcompensated by the very good performance also of the part in the mother company, building materials, technical equipment and the other ones, is that we expected originally a dip in the earnings per share for the year 2021. You remember that, whereby taking these investor of the 49% in, which would have an impact would impact the earnings per share number. Indeed, it did not. That came through the normalized tax ratio again. That is back in a range of 20% compared to the 44% we had the year before because of the reversal of the impact that we had shown in 2020. Look on the balance sheet, and Klaus mentioned a couple of things we did. Firstly, of course, the capital increase in the renewable energy business.
Of course the transaction on the financial structure business, and that is also reflected here in this balance sheet structure. The equity you see it is up from EUR 1.1 billion nearly EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 1.8 billion. This also reflects the capital increase of EUR 530 million that came in in March, but also of course the good net consolidated result of EUR 129 million, but also an increase or a reversal of the financial losses on the pension accrual that we accounted for in the years before with some EUR 30 million uplift on the equity. That probably increased the absolute number in the equity, but not the equity ratio. In a measure I'd like to see it, we are on our way or should be on our way to 20%.
If I correct the price issues out of this year's numbers, mainly driven in the Agri segment, but also on the energy trading derivatives. You see that in the detailed balance sheet on the annual report. We would be in a range of 20% again on the equity ratio. On the balance on the liability side, you see the change in the duration of the financial liabilities towards the long-term. This is reflecting the intake of the syn loan of EUR 1.7 billion and the reduction of the short-term banking liabilities. Cash flow statements, just one comment on this. If it comes here, I don't see it. Here we go. The cash flow statement, once again, look on the cash earnings. This is the important number.
It reflects what we really earned as cash from the operation. The cash flow from operating activities reflect instead the increase of the inventory number towards the year-end being offsetting the cash flow from the financing activities where we took it in. These are the inventories that we are going to sell now in the first months of 2022. It's a good thing to have them in because we probably will benefit from the price development that we have seen over the last three months since year-end and, of course, before that. This is a good thing. The cash earnings are up to nearly half a billion EUR for 2021. Finally, the look at the KPIs on the leverage and on the gearing.
The leverage is down from 4.9 the year before to 4.1. This year having over half a billion EUR of EBITDA and adjusted net debt reduced by the higher volumes of inventory. The readily marketable inventories, mainly the grain part in the inventory that we deduct to EUR 2.3 billion overall, and that leads us to a leverage of 4.1, gearing nearly in the range of one where we want to have it. All good from these financial KPIs. Finally, a look at the economic profit, which is also important for you guys always. Mostly all entities have improved their situation. Nearly all except for the Agro Trade and Services earn their cost of capital and then deliver an economic profit.
Also with Agro Trade and Services, due to the increase in performance, they made it up from a -65 last year to a -43 this year. They are on a good way. Even the invested capital increased year-on-year slightly, due to the price-driven grain inventory that we have in normalized. On a normalized level, it would be EUR 150 million below the previous number. This is reflecting the efforts Markus and the team made in reducing the locations and restructuring the business as it's all. The renewable energy, it seems to be very high, EUR 2.5 billion in total. That also includes two project that we kept back in 2021, which are now going to market in 2022.
The first one, a big one in the U.S., with a volume of EUR 300 million, has already been sold in February. You also could expect a very good start within the renewable sector for the ongoing year, and the other one will follow later this year. It's only a postponing effect in the projects that made the increase here of this invested capital overall. Finally, and lastly, a word on the other activities. You know this is all a bit of a little black box for you guys always. You see that we even increased the number from year-on-year. This includes the COVID defense costs that we have in there, but also a couple of one-timers that we included in here because of the good year that we had.
We normalize it in the year to come into a range of EUR 70 million for 2022 again. I guess this is all that we have to say on the other activity so far. Yes. Yeah. We go back to outlook. Outlook has already been included in the divisional papers, so I don't know if we just start with the Q&A or whatever.
No, no. Yeah. I would like to make a summary on the outlook for 2022 because there are some issues we have to discuss, of course. First of all, there's this terrible criminal war in Ukraine caused by Russia. The key question is this going to impact our operational business? Also, in such a situation, we have to discuss, of course, the performance of the company. What do we need to do to protect businesses if necessary? What does all this mean for the BayWa Group all over the world? We made a risk analysis over the last weeks, and the outcome of this analysis is there's not a significant risk at this point in time.
In other words, the outlook for 2022 is that we expect another significant increase of profitability going concern, of course. That there are no changes in the markets, that there is no direct impact on our different business models due to this war situation. The risk is really absolutely on a very, very low level, and it's not worth to be mentioned what this really means. Of course, we have additional costs on the logistics transportation supply chain side, which is not really brand new, so to say. We had this already last year.
The task of the sales guys and the distribution and supply chain management here is that the cost for energy, for fuel, diesel especially, for the containers, which is really very high, that we can transfer a significant part of the additional cost to the customers, which is normal in a supply chain management. So far, I don't see at this point in time from the war situation a significant impact on our business. Maybe two sentences to Ukraine and Russia and the grain export and the grain situation for more or less the world. For the European Union and especially for Central Europe, we do not see in 2022 and at the beginning of 2023 a significant impact. The upcoming harvest season here in Europe depends a little bit on the fertilizer.
We, BayWa, are able to supply the fertilizer to our customers, to the farmers, so we have a long position. Insofar, I don't see here for our environment a significant risk. Internationally, of course, I see issues upcoming, and especially the wheat export from Ukraine and Russia. For instance, in Egypt is more or less nearly 90% of the supply in Egypt, and this will have an impact on the food situation, food security situation in Egypt and other countries in Northern Africa. Because I do not believe that we will have a full supply from Russia and Ukraine, which is obvious. We expect a default from Ukraine more or less 70, 80, maybe even 100%.
It depends on the developments in this country, and I do not expect that Russia is going to export grain to North Africa and some Arab countries because China is in the procurement process, buying all positions they can get, and the storage in China, we assume, is extremely high. So far, no impact at this point in time, going concern on BayWa. As I said, we expect a very good 2022 again. That's my outlook for 2022. Josko, maybe now we can answer questions.
Thank you, Professor Lutz. Thank you, Mr. Helber. Now it's your time. I will repeat it again. It's the time and your opportunity to ask your questions. To do so, please switch on your camera. This will be a signal for us that you want to speak. As soon as you see your picture enlarged in the broadcast window, please activate your microphone and tell us the device that you use and your name. We are looking forward to your questions. I also already got two questions that I would like meanwhile on here on the iPad. I will start with the questions from Jörg Heineke. He asks, "You have approximately EUR 4 billion in stock. With wheat and oil prices rising enormously, when can we expect to see a windfall profit coming from that?
We saw already some windfall profits, as I said, in the last year, but it's upcoming again. We had a very good open book for 2022 in the BayWa AG. That's the operation managed here in Munich by the team of Marcus Pöllinger . Well, yeah, that's the answer. It will come. Fertilizer, grain, so especially wheat, corn, and some other agri resources. Of course, we have a long position as well. First of all, the specialty business, which is very stable and sustainable. On the other hand, the wheat and especially also the soya position, non-GMO, GMO soya from Latin America.
A further question.
The first half year, maybe to be more precise, I'm really very positive also for the agri business as a whole, not only Germany, Austria, but our global supply chain management for the compound feed industry in Europe. Second half, we'll see. Depends a little bit on the harvest season.
Okay. A further question also from Jörg Heineke . Probably I will address it to Mr. Helber. Is there probably need for additional capital to fund enormous growth opportunities in renewables going forward?
Yes, of course. It depends on how we will structure this process. They have a capital need. If we go on the IPP structure, for example, if we go to transform 2 or 2.5-3 gigawatt as an IPP over the next eight years, that needs further capital. This capital will be derived from non-recourse financing on these projects, but also on capital increase of both partners that we agreed upon. That's the way how we are going to work on this.
Maybe if I may add something. The cooperation, because that's brand new for us, yeah? The cooperation, the collaboration with our friends from EIP in Zurich is really excellent. I'm very happy. Also, my personal relationship to Roland Dörig is extremely positive. We are on track, more than on track, I guess a little bit faster as our budget originally was till 2028. I think it's worthwhile to be mentioned that I will stay as Chairman of the Supervisory Board after my resignation in the first of April. It's not a joke, by the way.
Good. Now we would like to continue with questions from Sven Sauer, Kepler Cheuvreux. Hi, Sven.
Hello, gentlemen. Great results. Thanks for the presentation and for taking the questions. Probably, these are for Mr. Helber. You mentioned that you have a normalized tax rate of 19% this year. Is this something that we should expect going forward for 2022?
Yeah. The normally corporate tax rate that we calculate internally with is 29%. The decrease down to the 19% came from some dividend payments that the group from the bank dividends that they received that were not taxable. I would guess something in between 20%-25% would be a reasonable number.
Okay, great. Second question is, do you have any plans on paying back the hybrid capital soon? I mean, given the relatively high payments you have on a yearly basis.
Yeah, we are just starting a pitch next week. This hybrid goes until the autumn this year. We are just going into the process of renegotiating with the banks, and then we will see how the conditions will be.
Okay. The next question is looking at the capital expenditure in the cash flow statement. The CapEx actually based on the IFRS was almost EUR 100 million lower this year than in the previous year. I was wondering if you could provide some information on this development and going forward should this also be at lower levels or rather higher?
Yeah. That reflects that we did nearly had no acquisitions in 2021. There was just one acquisition, the NWind , NWind, in the renewable energy sector. Other than this, we had nothing in this very year. It was the closure of the EIP project with the Swiss guys, and then we had a bit lower investment in capital expenditure on the normal business. This is the explanation. I would expect it in a normalized level as it is this year.
Okay. Last question then I'll go back into the line. The readily marketable inventories, of course, are higher this year again. I was wondering, on what price level do you calculate these? I mean, given the volatility of the agri prices right now.
This volatility of the agri prices since the beginning of the year, and Marcus, the prices went up in February through March, that has been or is not reflected in that number. This is the-
What we call the windfall profits in there when it comes to realize these stocks. These stocks are at cost, and the costs were higher even with 220-250 on average for the stocks at year-end 2021 compared to the previous year. That leads overall for the whole group, it's not only BayWa AG, but also Cefetra and RWA, to an amount being EUR 300 million higher than the year before. Not reflecting the tremendous price increase from EUR 250- EUR 400 that we saw over the last days.
Thank you very much.
The exciting question will probably be in the second half of the year when new harvest comes in, what would that mean in taking the stocks in and buying the stocks.
On what level is it done? Yeah.
We don't expect a decrease in price.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Great. Thanks.
The next question comes from Dr. Knud Hinkel from Pareto. Hello.
Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for having me. It becomes a good habit to congratulate on the good numbers and this year again. My congratulations on the good results. I have a couple of questions. First, two on the segments and then three on financials. I kick it off with the questions on the segments. First of all, on Building Materials with the very strong results in the last year. You also said something in the presentation on the contribution of the projects, which is relatively new, as I understand. Can you explain how this is accounted in Building Materials? Is there kind of percentage of completion way to account it or how is it done? Can you explain?
Mr. Hinkel, are you talking? We didn't understand because of the disconnection. Are you talking about the project?
Oh, sorry.
The new BayWa project business?
Yeah.
The building of apartments.
In, in-
Okay.
Exactly.
The accounting principle.
Yeah, on the accounting, this is really done by POC. These are several projects. I don't know how many we really account for. I think it has been 4, 5 or 6, but it's accounted for on POC method.
Okay. Very good. Thanks. On Agri Trade and Services segment, you dropped a number of remarks on that segment. It's a little bit tough to understand for us outsiders what will be the results going forward. On one hand, you have the restructuring efforts that you have undertaken for the business. On the other hand, we have probably seen good tailwinds so far, especially in the last year. Can you give us an estimate, what is the underlying earnings power of the segment going forward in the long term or in the midterm?
Yeah. Maybe I could also answer this question. Underlying the EUR 400 million-EUR 450 million is, as we always say, it's never a guidance. You know that, how reluctant we are on this question. Nevertheless, we have an indication. You know, the aggregate sales and service business came decades ago from a volume of EUR 80-100 million in those days. It came down, went through this restructuring processes. Now back at EUR 14 million, and this also includes our Austrian activities. On a normalized level, we expect them to be at a level of EUR 30 million.
This is the underlying number, which is also included in this EUR 400-EUR 450.
If you question why lower than, let me say, 10 years ago, it has to do with the changes in the agri business as a whole in Central Europe, especially. The new common agri policy from the European Union. Now it's interesting to observe what's happening due to the Ukraine crisis and some European Green Deal aspects. Maybe the European Commission has announced that two days ago in the evening will be put on hold. Unfortunately, the German government was not willing to open the possibility to seed soil, which is foreseen to become in the greening process, so to say, not anymore available for the agriculture growing process. I'm very critical on that.
This morning and yesterday evening, we sent a press release to the journalists and the media. On the LinkedIn account, also a clear statement against this reluctance of the German government, because we are talking about additional 4 million hectares in the European Union which we can make available for an additional growing process for wheat, corn, and so forth. I do not understand why the government is so hesitating here. I think it's not to be justified what the Secretary of State of the Agri Ministry yesterday said. I completely disagree, and I'm very upset.
Okay, interesting. Okay, then back to my question on financials. You reported a much better net income margin this year compared to last year. What's the reason for that? It's entirely the lower tax rate, right?
Yeah.
Next question. The cost of capital slide that you have shown, it seems that the agriculture equipment, you assign a much higher cost of capital than to the other segments. What is the reason for that?
Yeah, these cost of capital requirements are derived together with our auditors, reflecting the higher risk profile in these individual segments. This is given, it's reflecting the higher risk and the volatility in this business.
Okay. Fundamental reasons. Okay. Very good.
Yes.
Last question would be on if you can help me to understand the calculations on slide seven, where you alluded to the EBIT from new business and business that has been around before 2008. All in, it seems that you derive an EBIT of EUR 350 million in 2021, but you're clearly lower. This is because you disposed also some business in the meantime, or what's the reason for that?
You mean page seven, right? Why-
Slide seven, yes.
Yeah, because over the last this was the strategy, to become a global international company, which we are, and to dispose, to carve out, to divest different businesses over the last 14 years. If-
Okay.
If you want to understand the details, maybe Josko, you can provide Mr. Hinkel with the necessary information. It was a typical reallocation process for capital investment and capital employed.
There are a lot of divestment, sale of real estate, sale of this, headquarters building, for instance.
The sale of the garden business and a lot of asset banks, insurance companies and stuff like that, because BayWa was a very diverse company in the past. We still stick to the three business segments. This is clear, because that's the DNA of BayWa. Internally, we really changed a lot. We reinvested around about EUR 1.3 billion in new businesses over the last years.
Mr. Hinkel-
Okay.
If I got your question right, was it about the operating EBIT of 350 or 360, what it is?
Yeah. Yeah. That was it. Yeah.
That's only the operational EBIT without the.
That's it.
overhead cost.
Yeah.
So-
I see.
Bringing this down, this split up is only done by these operational EBIT for the business unit Energy, Agri, and Building Materials. That comes to and then we deduct the EUR 80 million on overhead and other things.
Digitalization.
digitalization, and then we come to the 266.
Okay. Now I understand what you mean.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay. Thanks a lot. That was from my side.
The next question comes from Oliver Schwarz, Warburg. Hi, Oliver.
Good morning, Mr. Schwarz. Long time no see.
Hello.
You have to unmute yourself.
Mr. Schwarz, please put the right button. Otherwise, we can't understand you. You are not loud enough.
Hopefully you can hear me now.
Yes. Good morning.
Whether you can understand me, that remains the question. Welcome to my home.
Oh.
Firstly.
Expensive furniture, I see.
Absolutely. Congratulations to Mr. Helber for helping Mr. Lutz winning his wager with me. You successfully were able to press earnings below EUR 300 million, which was the point of the wager, if you remember correctly from the last analyst meeting.
You did your best, I guess. Basically, I've got a number of questions here.
Waiting to hear from you.
Working capital in 2022, given the price increases both in fertilizers as well as in soft commodities, what is to expect regarding working capital inflation in 2022 from your point of view? And how will you be able to finance this given that your net financial debt is already at a record position?
Helber?
Firstly, on the risk assessment, you know, Mr. Schwarz, nobody knows where the price will be when the next harvest comes in. That will be the crucial part of time that we have to look at. The risk assessment that we made so far from the Ukraine status today is that something in the range of EUR 100 million-EUR 200 million additional capital would be required to finance the next harvest process. Now, being on the highest peak in 2021, the commodities that we have in will flow out over the next day. That will probably or the next weeks and months until the mid of the year, that will probably bring a lot of cash in, even given the price development that we see and the windfall profit that we could imagine.
It's not only on BayWa r.e. mother company level, but also on, say, Cefetra and to be honest, also on the renewable energy trading business. Secondly, we have of course the headroom since we did the syn loan implementation end of last year and the additional EUR 350 million from the bonded financings. The headroom is there. There's roughly EUR 1 billion of headroom from liquidity point of view, but of course, when it comes to the net debt, then we have to reflect it also with the EBITDA development. I'm not worried about the development over the year to finance it. But we have of course to look at the ratios if we can keep them.
You know, the problem is here always the same for many, many years that, in the middle of the year is the lowest, end of the year, mostly the highest due to the harvest season, the agri season, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you for that. Coming back to that windfall profit you mentioned, if I remember correctly, you have at BayWa very strict risk assessment and risk management systems at work. I guess the open positions regarding your inventories should be limited. We shouldn't see, let's say, a huge windfall profit, like if that was all basically open positions or the inventories. What amount of windfall profits are we likely, let's say, just guesstimating the current price level will be sustainable and there's no change at all. How much would that spell out in windfall profits to BayWa this year?
First of all, you describe absolutely correctly our risk management system and the people who are behind the management system. It's not only software. People who have to take action and to take decisions. So far, we are very conservative. We didn't change that during my tenure here in BayWa. The exact number of a windfall profit is hard to say at this point in time. As you know, we do not go down to product lines and to describe our profitability. Nevertheless, as I said, the outlook is very positive, and we expect a significant increase. Where is the increase coming? EBIT increase, I mean. Profitability increase for 2022. It's coming from renewable energy because we know exactly which projects we are going to sell, how we are improve the IPP and increase the income from IPP.
We see still a boom in solar module trading, which is a significant part and was a significant part in 2021 and will be in 2022 as well. Fourth point is significant increase on the specialty business from Sedaco. Due to our internal policy that we are able to store enough fertilizer for the local farmers in the south of Germany and the southeast of Germany, we expect from the fertilizer, especially fertilizer point of view, some windfall profit. Storage to sale, the yield is very positive. Last but not least, it depends, of course, a little bit on the wheat price development, the corn price situation over the next months. We expect another increase. The turnaround, which we saw in 2021 in the agri and services business, will be continued on a higher level.
Details, as always, I can't say at this point in time.
Very clear. Thank you. Can you quickly elaborate on the availability of fertilizers, please? Given the current situation with Belarus and Russia.
... when it comes to potash and the high natural gas prices when it comes to ammonia production here in Europe.
Yeah, of course. The gas price, oil price is in a direct correlation, of course, to the fertilizer prices, the different fertilizer products. As I several times said already also in public statements, the question of the volume of the harvest, and the quality and volume of the harvest in Europe and especially in Germany, depends on the fertilizer availability. In our regions, we are able to provide the fertilizer which are necessary to the customers because we bought from European manufacturers the fertilizer volume we need. Also, behind the owner of the owner of the owner of this manufacturing plants here in Europe, I don't want to mention the company, is not located in Germany. It's in Russia.
Due to the fact that we are struggling with the volumes, the qualities and the question, how can we provide enough wheat for the food production to the markets, it was clear for us to take the positions which we had in different ships and vessels and so forth. We take the volume and I think we can say that here we are paying the amount of money not directly to the owner or to the companies, but to an escrow. Just to make sure BayWa helps the farmers and BayWa helps the consumers to be able to get the food we need.
I have.
So far I don't see at this point in time a high risk. If we get gas and oil from Russia, I can't understand why not fertilizer as well, by the way. Well, it's a very political discussion, a discussion also of value systems and so forth. If we want to make sure that we have also for 2023, and my comment during my presentation was only for 2022 and the beginning of 2023, that we are here protected. Maybe some exception with oil and so forth. For the food supply security, no doubt we have the situation under control. For the time after, let me say, the first quarter 2023, maybe we have a different story, and this depends on fertilizer and crop protection.
Here we need the support from the European Commission to change some significant parts of the CAP at this point in time. We are struggling with the war situation. We are not, let me say, in a position to have some luxury discussions about some green philosophy issues, if you understand what I mean.
I get it. Thank you for that. I've got two minor questions, just quick ones. Firstly, Mr. Helber, can you spell out the amount of financial net debt of BayWa r.e. in 2021?
I guess it was EUR 2.1 billion. Could we check it?
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah. I think that was around.
That was round about EUR 2 billion.
Yeah.
Okay, thank you. Lastly, you may have mentioned it and I may have overheard it.
Mr. Schwarz, this EUR 2.1 billion includes the EUR 600 million that I mentioned on project that has been postponed into 2022.
Got it. Okay. Just for clarification, you may have mentioned it, but could you quickly talk me through the performance in regards to EBIT loss in Agri Trade and in Q4 2021?
The EBIT loss in Agri Trade in Q4?
Well, yeah.
You were looking on the Agri Trade only on Q... the result on from three months-
Yeah. I'm basically looking at Agri Trade & Services -EUR 21.7 million in Q4 2021.
Yeah. This is probably turned out of these restructuring accruals that we made and nothing more I could mention now.
Yeah.
I have to look on. What is it?
Mr. Schwarz, that's normal. First of all, restructuring accruals, which is allowed for the P&L statement. The second one is that the agri resources business, so fertilizer, crop protection and so forth, was in the fourth quarter on a very low level. You see that in the fertilizer volume, minus 7.2% of the overall volume we sold in 2020, and that had an impact on the first quarter.
We are working on this, Mr. Schwarz. My colleagues on the finance department are in the room here, so they are now going to work it out. I don't know exactly what it is, but we will deliver it in a second. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you so much for that. Very clear. I go back into the line. Thank you.
Thanks. Bye. The next question comes from Guido Hoymann, Metzler Bank. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. It's actually two only. Most of my questions have been asked already. The two ones are, first, can you provide us with the sensitivity of your pension liabilities to the discount rate? You know, because it has obviously risen sharply and will make, I think, quite a difference for net debt for many companies. I think it also plays a role in your company having quite big pension liabilities.
That's the first one. The second one is referring to the renewable business. Can you provide us an update for the development pipeline? Has that grown?
Yeah.
Where are we there?
Okay.
That's it. Thank you.
Mr. Hoymann, thank you for your question. I start with the second one. It's the easier part, and you can think about it, Andreas.
Yes.
There was again an interesting development on the pipeline over the last months. We are right now 20+ GW, which is in the portfolio as a potential volume for wind and solar facilities. This is really a significant change, because if I remember correctly, maybe we should ask Mr. Schwarz. He has all these figures in mind by heart. I think during the last session we said either 12 or 16 GW or so. This is really for our company and the structure and the availability to implement all these options in real solar and wind facilities. This is really significant. From, I think it was 16 up to 20 GW. That's the pipeline at this point in time.
In other words, over the next 2-3 years, it is clear to me that we will provide the nice and right yields to you guys because we know what's happening. The only bottleneck is the workforce. There are special specialists for building, projecting, and managing such type of energy facilities. We are looking all over the world for thousands of people. This is not quite easy. That's also the reason why we are always acquiring small companies all over the world to get some option portfolios. On the other hand, specialists, engineers, project developers, project managers, because that's well, it's human business, so to say.
Yes, Mr. Hoymann, on the sensitivity of the pension accrual, it came down from some EUR 800 million the year before to EUR 730 million this year. The only reason that I know on this development was the increase of the interest rates on the pension accrual. It was down to 0.66 or 0.68 the previous year. It's up to 1.08 this year. So that gave us a gain on this, and this reduces the accrual. On the other hand, that gave us a gain in the equity of some 30 something million EUR. The total pension scheme is closed since the mid-1990s, so no new liabilities are coming in that.
The sensitivity is only given by the sensitivity on the interest rate. One might expect, but from the years to put it the other way around, when we started with the decrease on the interest rate, we were at 5.25. It came down to almost nothing, and that cost us more than EUR 300 million on equity and vice versa on the pension liability. That reflects the sensitivity. I think it was each 0.10 variance in the interest rate accounts for EUR 5 million or something like that. This could be seen on that.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
The next question comes from Dr. Kaliboda. I know your camera doesn't work, so you can ask your question or I can read it however you want. Mr. Kaliboda.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Radeljic, thank you so much for taking my question. Can you hear me? Yeah.
Very well. Lovely voice.
Okay, good.
Oh, God.
Let's start with your nice projects in the States and what is new. You have renewable projects in the Greek market, also in Griechenland, and more activities in Spain. My question is regarding this non-recourse financing, which is very effective form for financing. You had in 2021, roughly EUR 400 million or just EUR 396 million in this non-recourse financing. Can we expect a similar figure for current year or do we begin. Yeah.
Yeah.
Most likely, yes. I would say, in the current year 2022, we will start only by the end of 2022 to taking the first project on IPP, on our own books. I don't know right now if those will carry a non-recourse financing or if it's in the normal course of financing. I guess for today, yes, that would be a reasonable number also for the current year.
Okay. You have now in the last year much more employees in the renewable, energy division, I think. It's logical when if you have so much, new projects, then this is causing 1,359 employees plus. That's a 33% we can say.
Herr Kaliboda, Klaus Lutz here. As I said before, we need much more.
Yeah.
Yeah. We are right now talking, I think, about 3,500, 3,400 people. We are coming from 25 over the last year, so this is really a success story also from the employment side. Another few thousand, I don't have a clear figure at this point in time, but another few thousand people would be nice to handle all these open projects and the options, the 20 GW, which is really significant. The people must be very international, global approach all over the world, so this is not easy.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you, schön. Thank you. Last question. It was very nice reading that you have now offshore windkraft projects in Scotland.
This is based on Crown Estate Scotland, and this belongs to the Scottish Government. How does this collaboration look like? Do they give you only the leases, also the property leases, or is this cooperation more intensive? Maybe you have some words about this.
Thank you for the question, Mr. Kaliboda. First of all, this is a change in our strategy because over the last years, I always said we are not willing to invest money in the offshore project business because it is very risky. As time goes by, there are changes. First of all, the technology is much more stable as it was in the past, looking to the North Sea projects, which were well very complicated and from a business point of view, a high risk for the companies and the funds invested in such type of businesses and wind facilities. Now, the technology made some progress, it's much more stable.
Also, the environmental impact, which was crucial for the permission process in the past, is meanwhile technically to be managed or can be handled. That's the fundamental thing. The second one is we were asked to participate in an official tender process from the Scottish Government indeed to participate because BayWa r.e. is very strong in the United Kingdom. Well, we participated, and finally we made it. It's nearly 1 GW, 950 MW, which we won in this specific project, but the capital requirements are very limited. So far, that's a collaboration with the government and has nothing to do with the extremely risky business approach we have seen from competitors in the North Sea.
Okay. Yeah. That helps a lot. Thanks so much. Thank you.
Welcome.
I have here a further question from Jörg Heinicke. If you allow me, Mr. Schwarz. Maybe this is also a question for Mr. Pöllinger, although I know this is something you like to answer. However, you can decide. The EU is planning to allow farmers to use additional land to plant wheat and corn. Is that sales potential already included in your midterm projection?
I will answer that. I decide who is answering, by the way. I said that already in my presentation that I'm very upset and politically I made a clear statement this morning because the German government is not allowing to use this greening, so-called greening land and soil for further production here in Germany. All over Europe, it's a potential of 4 million hectares on top of the basis of the CAP which is in place, but needs to be corrected now if we want to have or create a guarantee for the food supply security here in Europe. It is not included in any plans because during the budget process, this was not part of the deal. We will see what's happening here. Maybe we get some reaction.
I know that some other associations, German Raiffeisen Association, the German Farmers' Association and also on the European level, the lobby groups are trying to convince the German government to give the permission to use this land, because this has to do with responsibility. We are talking here about the question, have people to starve in this world. We have 850-900 million people every day who do not get a similar high quality food as we do. Now this will be the likelihood is extremely high that we increase this number of starving people in this world. Now we have this luxury discussion in Germany. I just look to our guy who is responsible for the political corporate affairs.
Jörg, are you in line with me or do you want to correct me? That's okay. Well, the head of the political department here says it's absolutely okay what I'm saying. Maybe sometimes I'm a little bit black and white for some people, but I don't care, because if you don't do so, people, especially on the political level, are not listening.
Okay, thank you. Two more questions. Mr. Schwarz, again.
Please put the bottom.
Can't hear you.
Mr. Schwarz.
Mr. Schwarz, after 2 years of corona, you should understand that you have to unmute.
He's not unmuted.
No, you are not muted. We don't understand you.
He's frozen.
No.
We don't understand. Yeah, now. Yes?
Now?
Now.
Could you say something?
Can you hear me now?
Now we can hear you.
Now. You are back.
Oh, wonderful.
Unfortunately, we didn't get your whole.
I was a little bit rotten, so sorry for that.
Okay, good. Please.
It seems like I'm getting old.
Oh, God. What should I say?
First question, in regard Mr. Helber walks away, that's fine.
Yeah. He's looking for some papers.
First to your service business when it comes to the RE business, so the servicing of wind and solar parks. Is there a bottleneck of personnel available that limits growth in that part of the business? You elaborated on the construction of the projects, planning of the project, but it's also the service business. Let's say, is that also affected by not enough available trained personnel?
No, that's not the case. Nevertheless, I'm not happy with the bottom line result in the service business, and we have to go through a separate restructuring process for the renewable energy service department. This was discussed already with responsible management, and we'll look forward to see some positive result in the future. I think this has to do with the service, that's a very interesting question. As an independent project developer, are you also, let me say, the right organization, the capable organization, the accepted organization from the market to do the service for the customers? The customers are pension funds, insurance companies, family offices, people who are investing in such type of energy plants. That's a question mark.
We are in a strategic discussion at this point in time still. Nevertheless, the people, and I'm speaking about the bottleneck always regarding the project development.
Okay, thank you. Second one. You mentioned that you and your partner are planning to increase the capital to foster the growth in BayWa r.e. How will that be done technically? In what timeframe do you anticipate in that regard? And what amount of funds will you be willing to earmark for a capital increase in BayWa r.e. from your side?
Matthias?
Yeah. Maybe Mr. Schwarz, I do that. The first capital increase was planned to have in May 2022. We already did it lately in December. It was volume of EUR 110 million, 50/50 each. The next one which comes up or is planned in 2024 with a volume of EUR 200 million, 50/50 each. But if the requirements would be there to further inject capital to foster the growth and the working on the pipeline, the partners will probably talk about it. It's not yet agreed. These two are agreed already, but we are willing, both partners are willing, to give further capital if needed.
Understood. Thank you.
Finally, I just have. Yeah.
If I may, just, I've got two answers or one, at least two answers on prior questions you made. The net debt position for RE, I was a little bit too high. It's only EUR 1.7 billion. The back office corrected me in that way. I was really good. It was nearby, but even it was too high. On the result number in the fourth quarter, on agri trade, the negative contribution of some EUR 20 million, that includes roughly at least EUR 12 million of one-timers. You mentioned it, that we made a very conservative financial closure this year. We made some write-offs of goodwill for BRH.
It's in the north of Germany, and then write-off on the Regensburg Osthafen and so on, and that sums up to EUR 12 million. Normally, the final quarter in the agri business is traditionally a red one. It's a cost quarter. You are right, this one was mainly impacted by these one-timers that we took in.
Thank you very much for that. I finally only have a request to make. Mr. Lutz, could you please have a word with Mr. Söder on the 10H rule in Bavaria in regards to wind power?
This morning, the chairwoman of the Economic Committee of the Bavarian Parliament rejected the demand to give up this 10H rule because of, I don't know. In my other job as chairman and president of the Bavarian Chamber of Commerce, we always ask to have more flexibility on this and to give this limit up because it's really nonsense. To give you just two figures. From a wind facility point of view, we have for renewable energy in Bavaria, a potential in principle of 30 GWs. Okay? On the basis of the rules and the T's and C's and the laws which are in place, max 3 GWs. So 10x less.
To be honest, if we, besides all the crises and war and supply chain issues and China and supply chain due diligence law of the European Union, all these things, we will never succeed with this energy change on a level which the people expect to get if we are not able to build the facilities and especially the windmills a little bit closer together. Otherwise, forget it.
Completely is a contract view. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you. There's, I think, one more question coming again from Dr. Knud Hinkel. Then we come, please, slowly to the end because I've
Slowly to the Weißwurst.
To the Weißwurst. Yes. Now I have an appointment, external appointment. Please, if you don't mind.
I will try to keep it short so that you get to your dinner. You already discussed a little bit the requirements on the personnel side that you need to increase your staff. We have now some, for some time already, higher inflation rates. My question would be, do you see also wage cost inflation coming through in the meantime? I think last time we talked, you said, no, that's not problem. But given that, BayWa is a very personnel-intensive business, is that something that you see as a risk going forward and maybe also something that endangers the long-term profit targets?
The second question is just to understand better your business model. The markups that you charge your customers in Agri Trade and Services for inputs or for products, does it depend, does it go up if prices go up, or is it a fixed markup for these kind of businesses? That would be helpful to understand.
Okay. Come to the wages. Well, of course, this is complex in a global company, but just focusing on Germany, I would say, I think that we have a collective bargaining agreement with ver.di, with the German union, which is responsible for the trading distribution business and so forth. For 2022, we have an increase of 1.8% for the employees, and in 2023, 3%. The overall two years contract is 4.8%. From an employer point of view, this is a very good agreement, so to say. A few days ago, I had discussion with the head of the union and a member of the supervisory board of BayWa about this development, because the assumption is the inflation is not only short-term.
Here we have a clearly different opinion together with the union and myself to the statements of the EZB and this lady Lagarde and Mrs. Schnabel and so forth. The question is only what does it mean? Our point was we have two years. We stick to the two years because this settlement is very, very good in comparison to other tariff agreements in Germany. That's the one thing. The second one is I learned that the union is going to start the evaluation process for new negotiations regarding wage increase in January. We have another seven or eight, how many? seven months left or seven months left until they start the process internally because we have an in-house tariff agreement. We are not part of the employers association regarding the tariff agreements.
At this point in time, I do not expect any change. Nevertheless, of course, we have a lot of people which are out, outside of this tariff agreement, and on an international basis, the T's and C's are completely different. At this point in time, we don't have plans to increase wages extraordinary. We don't have any discussions and negotiations either with unions or with the works council. It depends, of course, on the next, let me say, 6-8 months, 10 months, whatever, regarding the crisis situation and the inflation. I personally, that's also my statement as Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, together with the Managing Director, it's always the same. We do not expect a decrease of inflation.
I could imagine that we have an inflation of 6%-7% in the Eurozone over the next 15 months, 12-15 months. It's not a short-term issue. How we handle that from a business point of view with the wages is still an open question.
Margin? The margin question.
What was margin.
Okay.
No, that was the second question.
The second question, I guess it was about the benefits that we would have from rising prices. Was it right?
Whether the markups depends entirely on the volumes you sell in the markets in agri trade and service, or if it's also depending on the prices or revenues?
It depends on this overall trading strategy. If you have a very high long position, prices increase, so volume plus pricing, plus price increase is the yield and the outcome. In so far, we are long in the grain business, we are long in the fertilizer and some other businesses. In so far, it's just a math question.
No fixed markups.
No fixed markups. We don't have that.
Good. Thanks a lot.
Okay. It seems that all questions are answered. That's it for this conference. We would like to thank you for your participation and interest in BayWa. Personally, I hope that we can invite you next year to the annual conference here in our headquarters. It will be probably the last one of Mr. Lutz. Afterwards, we will have definitely a big party, yeah. Until then, we wish you Happy Christmas. Happy Christmas.
Oh, God. Oh, God.
Happy Easter. Of course, we will talk to you on the conference call for the first quarter at the beginning of May. Thank you very much.
Happy Christmas.