Good day and welcome to the BayWa AG analyst conference call Q3 2021. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Josko Radeljic . Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our analyst conference call on the results of the third quarter of BayWa AG. The reporting season is in full swing, so thanks for joining. You've got the detailed information and the Q3 results, hopefully in front of you. All relevant information has been sent out this morning, and, of course, you can download it also from the Internet. Professor Lutz and Mr. Helber are going to take you through the presentation. Afterwards, we will be happy to take your questions. I hand over now to Professor Lutz.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My pleasure to have you with us this morning for the Q3 results analyst conference. Just for the fashionable guys among us, I wear a tie this morning. I hope you like it. I always call the page we will discuss with you, or I will explain so that you know where we are in the presentation, the flow. As you can see in page two, the agenda for today, that's the usual stuff. I go to page four immediately regarding the development of the group. The most important message is excellent figures and again, a record high of BayWa corporation. The key message is that all three business segments are contributing to this excellent result.
To the outlook for 2021, I would like to make a comment at the end of our presentation, so after Andreas Helber. Energy, +66% revenue and EBIT growth in the first nine months. The same with Building Materials, 56% in Agriculture. This is key because also in Germany, we are much better on track as we were over the last years, 43%. The revenue we have an up of 17.1% to EUR 14 billion. Maybe we will touch EUR 20 billion this year. So far that's not the guidance, just the revenue consideration. The bottom line I will explain later on.
It's really nearly a sensation to have this 86.7% EBIT increase to EUR 191.7 million, because this is really the highest nine months result ever in BayWa history. Also, we have all these extraordinary costs for the COVID pandemic situation and some other one-timers. Bottom line, I'm very pleased with this extraordinary result. I think it's worthwhile to be mentioned that also the ESG-linked syndicated finance loan agreement with our banks with a volume of EUR 1.7 billion has been successfully finalized in the last quarter. Energy, building materials and the agriculture business is in a good shape. Turning to page five, you see comparison over the last years, 2017 to 2021 regarding the Q3 results.
We are more or less just in Q3 on the level of last year. Turning to page six. Here you see the significant increase of profitability to EUR 191 million. We come to the different business segments. Just turn, please, to page eight. Here you see some market considerations. First of all, of course, the development of the electricity price, especially in Germany, but not only in Germany. The Brent oil price in our conventional energy sector has been increased really significantly as well over the last months. So far we have some good opportunities. We had some good opportunities in the energy business. I'm coming back to that in a moment.
The gross capacity installation, there's not a big change to the previous presentations I made during the other quarterly result conferences. There's one key message on this slide that's on the right side at the bottom that the BayWa Group was able to compensate the decrease in heating oil sale with an increase in the wood pellets business. So far, that's balanced and very interesting because this shows us that also from a conventional energy sector, we are on track regarding the transformation of this ESG relevant part of our business. Turning to page nine, you see that we have now in the renewable energy sector, which is the BayWa r.e. AG, together with our partner EIP from Switzerland, from Zurich.
You know, we finalized this joint venture in the first half of this fiscal year. We are right now on the revenue level of EUR 2.2 billion. The outcome, the EBIT outcome is EUR 69 million. Reason for that is of course we sold some facilities as always. To make one point clear, the result could be also in a different scenario in the future, maybe -EUR 30 million, -EUR 40 million, -EUR 20 million, or +EUR 10 million, or something like that, because the project business depends very on a very high level on the sales activities. Nevertheless, the key message is that over the last nine months, but also the previous fiscal year, the success of the trading solar panel trading activities especially has been very, very positive.
In a 9 months comparison to 2020, the module sale has been increased of 72% and the converters of nearly 40%. We are, as you know, number one in Europe and one of the key trading companies in the world. In so far, it was the right decision to stay in the market. Also, we had over the last years some losses to carry, which have been compensated by the project sale activity. Page nine, as I said, a very positive development. In the RE sector, we expect again a record high at the end of the year because as always, the last six weeks are very important. For instance, in October, we sold one wind facility. Was it wind or solar?
Wind facility in France with a net profit of round about EUR 30 million. Turning to page ten. The decrease is normally EUR 11.1 million EBIT and the revenue EUR 1.4 billion. Crucial, the decrease of the heating oil, I mentioned that already, 32%. Fuel, well, this has to do of course with the mobility during the lockdown period, -20%. The slight decrease in the lubricant business, -5% over the last nine months, is also directly linked to the COVID situation in our markets. Bottom line, the change in the product mix, the introduction of the CO2 pricing as a CO2 neutral source of energy has been, in so far, a great success for us as the customers are ordering more and more wood pellets.
They are changing the systems, the heaters and the technology. In some countries, as you know, heating oil and heating oil heaters are not anymore allowed. Positive development also in the mobility solutions chain page. We are expanding our LNG fuel station network. We are right now building nine different LNG fuel stations in Germany. We are turning now to the agriculture segment, page 12. Here you see an interesting page regarding the market developments, especially the commodities, from a charts point of view. Volatility was high, nevertheless, increasing, increased prices. Here, especially the rapeseed, which reached a record high, at around EUR 680 per ton on a year-to-year basis.
On the right side, the global grain balance, you see that the decrease of storage has started on a higher level as the last years. In other words, the question is, of course, what does this mean? First of all, the consumption and the harvest, the global grain harvest is more and more balanced. In so far, volatility and fundamentally increasing prices should be the situation also over the next months. In other words, for our business, this is extremely positive. Turning to page 13. The other market consideration input resources, the fertilizers, of course, they see again a very high level, pricing level, and this has to do with the high energy prices. It's always the same, more or less, consideration.
The question is, of course, what does this mean for BayWa? The storage last autumn and, also during the fiscal year has been perfectly timed. In so far, the profit is the result of a very serious and reasonable management process. I would say it's also, of course, a windfall profit, as we had seen in the past, also the other way around, decreasing profits in the fertilizer business. The agri equipment and machinery is still in a pretty good shape. The only problem we are faced for the end of the fiscal year, the chip crisis and the question, how many tractors can be shipped from our manufacturers? That's the most important one, of course. AGCO, Fendt from here in Germany, and CLAAS as well.
Nevertheless, the order intake is extremely high, and we expect an excellent fiscal year. The key question is what's happening with the chips. Are they available so that the tractors and all the other machines can be shipped to the customer. The global produce business, our global international fruits and vegetable business and the greenhouse business here is a little bit suffering in New Zealand due to the apple production, which is below the previous year. Also the domestic market is suffering under the circumstances of Corona. Nevertheless, in Europe, the apple price is in a good shape. The farmers are very positive regarding the payout volume very positive. Turning to page 14, here we see an interesting development. It's not the first time we show you excellent figures from the Cefetra Group.
The revenue is around about EUR 3.8 billion and EUR 29 million EBIT. The reason for that is, of course, the volatility of the grain commodities in the markets, but especially we have a significant increase in our profits regarding the specialties. You know, over the last years, we acquired some companies regarding the specialty business just to mitigate and to balance the volatility in the commodity business. This is a great success, especially Royal Ingredients is in excellent shape these days, and also the other different acquisitions we made. Turning to page 15, here you see our agri trade and service business, which means Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe. An interesting development, +12.8% on the revenue side, we got EUR 3 billion and the profit EUR 34 million.
This has to do with the higher prices for commodities and for the fertilizer and the input business. That's the reason for the higher revenue and the profitability. This has to do with the windfall profits in the fertilizer sector, but also the contracts we are finishing and realizing in the origination/ sale to the mills especially and brewers and malting companies in Germany. The situation is much better than the previous years. Of course, also the restructuring activities, the actions the management had taken under the leadership of Marcus Pöllinger is the basis for this significant increase in profitability. Feedstuff high, crop protection better, and the seeds as well.
Turning to page sixteen, as I said already, the agri equipment, the machinery business is from the revenue point of view, more or less on the same level as 2020 and also our profitability. The key question is what's happening at the end of the year due to the chip crisis. Turning to page seventeen. As I said, we suffered and we are suffering a little bit at this point in time in New Zealand, EUR 22.7 million EBIT, EUR 700 million revenue. We are going to close this gap with some one-timers over the next weeks and we expect profitability on the same level as last year. Building material, materials segment.
Here, the fundamentals you see that at page 19 are still excellent, and we provide the market, page 20, with a sensational EBIT for the first nine months with EUR 61.4 million. Guys who are following us for a long period of time, you know, as we started the restructuring process for building materials that we said we can imagine that the level of EUR 15 million profit could be possible is achievable. Here you see now EUR 61.4 million. This has to do with the shape of the business and the markets, but also the project development company is contributing here more and more profitability, and this will be increased over the next year significantly as well.
also our participations, the stakes we bought in little companies and startups just to surround a little bit the classical general building materials business is very successful. Turning to page 21. This is, as always, especially investments in IT, in software packages, in FarmFacts that we are able to supply and to manage for the farmers applications to improve the processes on the farms. That's the overview. Summarizing the key messages, first of all, the best year ever. More or less the same as we had that last year, but the profit figures are higher, significantly higher, nearly double, nearly doubled in comparison to 2020. Also, we have this significant cost load to carry regarding the pandemic situation.
Insofar, I'm very happy and very positive, and I'm coming later on to the outlooks. Now I hand over to my dear colleague, Andreas Helber.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you, Klaus. Good morning also from my side. One of our fellow followers just gave the comment, a very good morning start with very good fiber figures, and I think this is very right. It's a pleasure also for me to present these numbers, the best one, as Klaus mentioned, that we ever had after months. Just continuing in the presentation on page 23, it shows the other activities. We are on level, as it shows, compared to last year. Klaus mentioned already the burden that we had to carry again this year for the pandemic costs, around about EUR 6 million-EUR 7 million, including all of the mask, the whatever defense activities, that we had to put in there.
Partially, we collected some bank dividends already from our friends in Austria and also from our friends here at the DZ Bank in Germany. The good news is that we are expecting another dividend to come in the fourth quarter. So far, we know it already from Austria. It'll be a smaller million amount, but anyway, they are paying dividends again. Also what I heard from the DZ Bank is that they are going to pay another dividend in the final quarter this year. I don't know if that comes through our holding in Bavaria into our books already in 2021, but at least they are paying dividends. Nevertheless, the outlook also from the other activities. I know that's also always a bit of a black box for you guys.
I expect it to be on level with last year. The overall number was some EUR 70 million. Maybe it could also be a bit higher than this. We are expecting also pandemic costs to come. You know that the situation is getting worse again here in our area. That might bring higher costs in on some level. We have seen some costs rising for example, the D&O insurance premium went up. You won't believe it, from some EUR 750,000 per year premium, up 10 x to EUR 7.5 million. That will affect also the other activities number by some half of it, EUR 3.5 million higher than last year's numbers overall.
I expect it to be balanced off by or set off, compensated by other dividends and cost cutting that we could achieve here in the other activities. Overall, I expect it on level to be with last year's, maybe some higher costs coming in. Page 24, 25, 26, that's just the summary pages of the segment reporting that Klaus just gave you. Just to summarize the energy up with an EBIT of EUR 80 million. For the renewable, Klaus stated it's around EUR 70 million. That's probably half of what we expect for the full year to come. I think we are on track with the final quarter. Klaus also mentioned the Tout Vent transaction that has been closed already.
We are on track with the sale of our product in the renewable side. Overall, at least after nine months, an EBIT of EUR 80 million, and you see it somewhat higher to what we have seen in the past through all the years. Agriculture equipment on page 25 comes up with 111 overall over the four sub-segments that Klaus reported. Finally, the building materials, I think this is really exceptional, and it continues throughout the final quarter. EUR 60 millio n after nine months, outstanding result. Now we're expecting a good final quarter. It depends on how early the winter season starts. Nowadays, in the mid of the quarter, the weather conditions are pretty good.
Let's see where the final quarter goes to. Page 27, the overall summary of the income statement for the whole group. I mean, you can see it all. Over EUR 14 billion in total turnover and EBITDA of EUR 371.5 million. It sums up to an earnings per share of EUR 0.99 compared to -EUR 0.33 the previous year. Final look on the page 28 on the balance sheet. This includes on the total asset number a lot of the inventory that we carry on now from the harvest season that we just went through.
That's quite normal in the third quarter, but also the RE or renewable energy projects that are going to be sold in the final quarter. We're expecting cash flows coming back in a range of EUR 350 million-EUR 400 million within the final quarter. Most of it coming in December, as we are used to have it, but everything, as I said, is on track. One thing you see a change in the debt position between the long-term and the short-term debt, it's just a swap. That is related to the closing of the syn loan facility. Klaus mentioned it, EUR 1.7 billion that we closed early in September. This is what we have drawn so far.
Half of it has been drawn by BayWa AG in the harvesting process and also by BayWa r.e. In the developing project processes. That's now swapped between long and short-term debt. On the leverage numbers, we are on track for the final what we expect for this final outcome at year-end should be in line now having the proceeds in from the investor from Zurich with EUR 530 million and the long-term or the syn loan facility. I mean, that's just a change in the long or short-term debt. Nothing to do with that, but I think we are also on track on our KPIs or our balance sheet related KPIs.
That should be it from my side, and now we come back to Klaus again with the outlook for 2021.
As you know, we don't give a clear guidance in terms of figures, so I try to describe a little bit the situation. As I said in a statement to the stock exchange a few months ago, that we expect a significant increase of profitability in 2021. Taking just a few comments on the different business segments in Energy, as I said, RE i s going to perform excellently again. The conventional energy sector, there is a decline in the sales of heating oil. Nevertheless, bottom line will also be a good figure and a good contribution.
The Agriculture is really much better as in the previous fiscal year. This has especially to do with the outstanding performance of the Cefetra group, but also the positive development in Germany and in Austria. Building materials, it depends a little bit, as Andreas said, on the weather situation, the weather conditions at this point in time in our markets. The weather is very, very good, so I expect that we can continue this excellent performance in the Building Materials. Bottom line, a significant increase to the previous fiscal year. That's my comment on this. Josko , what are we going to do now?
Yeah, thank you Professor Lutz. Thank you, Mr. Helber. Now it's your time, and we are ready to take your questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure the mute function on your phone line is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. If you find your question has already been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. Again, please press star one to ask a question. We will pause for just a moment to allow everyone to signal for questions. We will take our first question from Guido Hoymann from Metzler. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, gentlemen, and thank you for taking my questions. Several ones. Maybe the first one on your, on your developer or development pipeline. You know, in the context of the new or potential new coalition in all the plans, can you give us the Germany share of your pipeline, both in your project pipeline, actually, but also the Germany share in your solar trading business? You know, a rough indication, simply because I think the German market will play or should play a bigger role in the coming years. The Germany share in your pipeline and in your solar trading, please. The other question would be, also regarding the pipeline. Are you willing to share where it stands now and update, you know, about the size of the pipeline?
As you see in many questions about this pipeline, I think it plays a big role in this business. Do you, in this context, actually also consider to get this audited, you know, and maybe also, you know, present it a bit more prominently in the future? That's on the renewables business. Maybe last but not least, you know, in your agriculture segment, what's gonna happen? You mentioned the shortage of electronic components for the tractors. That could still remain a threat. But what would it mean, you know, if this scarcity or shortage of electronic components lasts, could that mean a negative result in Q4? Or, you know, what could be the implication from that situation? These are my questions. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much. First of all, we start with renewable energy. Well you know that renewable energy is a growing business for us, and especially the international markets are much more important than the domestic market, which was the case already over the last years. Like Japan, United States, Australia, Malaysia, and some other Asian countries except China. Of course, more or less all European countries where either solar or wind facilities can be successfully and efficiently installed and built. The portion of the German activity is below 10% for the project pipeline and the project development. The trading activity, this is really higher for the trading of PV modules. Is anyone able to tell me? I don't know.
Inverter.
Inverter? No. I mean, what is the share of the activity in Germany? We are.
I would say it's around about 60%, I would guess. We have Germany, we have the U.S., we have Switzerland and Benelux, the most part of it.
In Germany.
Just would be a guess. We could check it, but I would guess.
Let's say 50/50, 60/40, 40/60.
Yes.
Germany is indeed significant here. Nevertheless, we are number one in Europe. Pipeline audit, no. Why should we do that? I don't see the necessity for it. At this point in time, I guess we have around about 16 GW in the pipeline. So that's, it's a fluctuation, of course, due to the project development for the next year already, because the projects which we have in concrete on the pipeline to be sold this year, well, is not anymore part of the pipeline. The last question, do we expect a negative result in Q4 for the machinery business? The answer is no, because we were able, over the last nine months, due to our stock inventory, to provide the machines and the equipment and devices to the farmers.
This was a wise decision to increase the stock inventory. In another market situation, I would criticize it, but this situation is very positive, of course. I think that the service, the billable hours, the service activities for our machinery business is more and more important and became more and more important over the last years. This will support the bottom line and the used equipment. Because the used equipment has a real boom, not only in Germany, in more or less all over Europe, because used equipment is available in the market. New machines, you have to wait maybe a little bit. We do not expect a significant decrease in the last quarter. All right.
Klaus, maybe if I may add some points on the pipeline and on the German share, between 40% and 60%, that was just the solar trading business, as Klaus mentioned. On the project development business, interesting enough, from the planned 1.2 GW that we are going to sell or we plan to sell for the full year 2021, only one project in the size of 30 MW is from Germany.
Yeah. All the other projects were from the U.S., from Asia, from elsewhere. Only one project is from Germany. The German part in the pipeline is, as we said, very limited. On the next point that you asked if we're going to audit the pipeline or let the pipeline be audited. I know that you want to have a higher insight into the pipeline, where it comes from, what it is, what the projects are, but you must understand that first of all, the pipeline is changing every day. Projects are going in, going out, and I think this is something that we are not going to publish, also from a competitive standpoint, that we are not going to publish where we are working on projects in the future.
What all we can do is to give the overall size of the pipeline, maybe where it is and how it splits up to solar and wind. I think this is definitely. I understand your point, but this is we beg your pardon that we are not going to publish this one.
No, it's okay. Very clear. Thank you for your answers.
We will now take the next question from Dr. Norbert Kalliwoda from Dr. Kalliwoda Research. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello. Good morning, Professor Lutz Helber.
Hello.
Yeah, I have got two questions. Maybe in general, the margins in your as a renewable business, it was excellent, you told it. Can you give us some idea in general about the margins in coming year? The second, the demand for maize and soybeans in China, we knew that it is almost every time strong. Has something changed there? As in how is the situation for the demand of that? Maybe the last one, the wheat prices. I mean, in May this year, maize and wheat prices were strong, were high. Do we have now the same situation that it is increasing parallelly? Both is important for animal feed and so on. This would be nice to have an idea. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I start with the last question, wheat, corn. It was over the last months very volatile. Nevertheless, from a chart point of view, the tendency is an increase. We got some benefits out of this development, of course. For the animal feed, if you mean the compound feed production, we expect higher prices. Higher prices for the farmers means higher prices for the meat production. Bottom line, higher prices for the meat. This has not only to do with the commodity price increase, but also, especially the energy costs, not only here in Germany and also some, let me say, legal restrictions on the basis of the new CAP of the European Union.
It is expected from our side that meat price also for the consumers will be increased also in Germany. Germany has always a special role to play because the prices for the goods are, in principle, much lower than in other European countries. Maybe one aspect which is also very important for our business models in Cefetra especially, because Cefetra is the most important supplier to the compound feed industry in Europe. What we see now is due to the political discussions, the CAP restrictions, and also, let me say, the atmosphere and the mood within the farmers community in Germany, that more and more farmers more or less surrender, and they give up the meat production in Central Europe.
We expect that the Eastern European markets will be much more. Or the farm markets, I mean, which will be much more important as it was in the past. There's one interesting observation that especially the chicken production and pig production is significantly again increasing in Spain. For us, the Spanish market is extremely important, and we supply from Glasgow, from the U.K. to Spain the necessary resources for the compound feed production. I hope that this is the answer you expect.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
The next question, China. Well, there's no change, to be honest. The demand for natural resources for commodities is still extremely high. This has to do with the five-year plan of the Communist Party, because they want to become more and more independent, not only on a technology basis, but also on a food supply, in the food supply area, because food supply security is one of the most important political parameters for the Communist Party in China. In other words, the compound feed production in China is becoming more and more a local business.
Of course, they need the commodities for the production process, and also all the necessary ingredients like vitamins, minerals. Stuff like that. So far, demand high, no change. I expect the demand is going to be higher over the next years. The outcome will be, or the result will be, that due to the restriction of the volumes for the European markets, it seems to us that the prices will see more higher levels as we were faced with over the last years.
Mm-hmm.
To the margin subject in the renewable energy. Well, this is not really a typical margin business because it's project business.
Mm-hmm.
We do not expect a decrease, if you call it margin, over the next years. We have plans till 2028, which was agreed upon. This plan was agreed upon with our partner in Zurich, EIP, and we do not see at this point in time any changes for the margins for the project development. As you know, we changed a little bit our strategy, and this was also agreed upon with our new investor that we start the IPP business as well. We take some facilities on the balance sheet.
Mm-hmm.
That we have a higher level of, let me say, guarantee for cash flow and also profit income, so to say, over the next years. That the plan goes till 2028. The margins in the trading business like solar and converter and all these relevant devices for the smaller solar businesses and especially the residential solar facilities for the landlords and house owners and so forth. Of course, there can always be pressure on the margin, but due to our market position at this point in time, that many trading and distribution companies had to file for bankruptcy over the last years, they were bought and acquired by companies like BayWa r.e. For instance.
I do not see here a high pressure on the margins at this point in time. There's one point I would like to mention, that the new Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, so the supply chain security, I don't know the word. I hate this law, as you and many of you know that, of course, in my second job, so to say, as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce here in Bavaria, we are fighting this. Because at the end of the day, it's always the question, where are we sourcing? What does it mean? Can we guarantee that the sourcing area is not linked to forced labor, breaches of human rights and things like that?
This is a really extreme challenge for all of us, not only for BayWa, for many, many companies, to make sure that we are compliant with this law, but this law is so on such a low level of quality, that we have to find ways to handle that situation. We expect another one coming from the European Union. All these things are completely ridiculous. By the way, this does not mean that the CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of BayWa has something against the human rights. If someone has this opinion, would express some concerns regarding my person, I sue everyone personally, immediately. This is a side mark. Okay? That's it.
Okay. Yeah, this helps a lot. Thank you so much. Good.
Okay. Bye-bye. Ciao, ciao.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
We will now take the next question from Oliver Schwarz from Warburg Research.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Hi.
Congratulations to the excellent results you just published. Thank you to Professor Lutz for wearing a tie. I really appreciate the effort here.
Do you like the color? That's the question.
You know, color is always a question of taste. I will refrain from any comments on that. Okay. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly, Mr. Helber, you alluded to the sharp increase in the D&O insurance you have on an annual basis of EUR 7.5 million, up from EUR 750,000 the year before. What happened there? Have you guys become a real liability to BayWa, or why is that fee gone up by 10 x? That would be my first question. Second question is regarding your fertilizer inventory.
I remember back to in 2008 when we saw a similar development in the fertilizers, when we saw a very sharp decrease in the prices and a very sharp decline immediately after that many of, let's say, the wholesalers were caught with too much inventory on their hands that wasn't already pre-sold and hence had to take a hit on inventories. Could you please quickly elaborate on the level of inventories at the moment in regard to volumes? I mean, the same should be applicable to when looking at soft commodities, especially wheat and corn, things like that, obviously very high price levels at the moment.
Does that mean that you have, let's say, a higher rate of closed contracts or less open contracts than you used to have in, let's say, more normal times, just to reflect the risk that prices might turn south eventually? Perhaps also a question on your pellet business. A 30% increase year-on-year is quite steep. Are there any, let's say, capacity restraints in regards to availability of those pellets that might restrain your growth in future years? Basically, is that as good as it is or is there so much more to come? That would be my questions. Thank you.
Mr. Schwarz, thank you very much for the questions. I just would like to make a general remark regarding the fertilizer inventory. As you know, 2008 was my first year. It was a complete disaster. We lost really high, not only margins or so, we really incurred within a few weeks, within four weeks, a high loss for BayWa because the stock inventory was so high. We changed the policy years ago already that we are very careful what we take in the inventory due to this crisis in 2008. We have a similar development now, and you see that our policies, risk management, and also to consider the market development much more closer as it was 14 years ago.
So far, I'm very happy with the outcome. I wouldn't say it's only windfall profit or was not only windfall profit the first nine months. Now, the concrete level of stock inventory for the fertilizer, is anyone able to give me the figures here, please?
I think it's Mr. Schwarz. Hello. I think it's not the question of inventory level on fertilizer at the end of September, because it's more about the contracting, as I got it. It's the question how we get the fertilizer being supplied for the next season. I don't think that we have very high levels right now because it just starts into the season, and that we are going to get all the contracts that we made. We have two contractors, as I learned from the revenues that we made, that we are still negotiating with. It's more the crux this year is that the suppliers will fulfill their commitments and their contracts towards BayWa.
We have 150,000 fertilizer stored right now, which is just a small amount for the whole amount that we are going to supply into the season. The season just starts, you know that we are just now getting the inventories in the final quarter to be ready for supplying our customers in the beginning of the next season. This is not an inventory thing right now. On the other commodities you asked for was wheat and corn. Actually, we normally have 1 million tons in at the end of the year.
I don't know, we are still running through the corn harvest, which is to be pretty good, as we learned from our colleagues. Also, the wheat harvest, volume-wise, was good, quality was another thing. Given the high wheat price that we see, and they are still on the rise, we do not have an inventory issue in there. It comes up with higher inventories at year-end, volume-wise and price-wise, but I don't think that we have a risk in there. Of course, through the risk management, we have then also higher contracts volume-wise closed into the new season. Finally, your question on the D&O. To be very clear, that's nothing to do with BayWa, to say it this way.
All the D&O insurance industry, and I think you should have seen that also with other companies, increased dramatically its premiums on D&O insurances. There's nothing against BayWa. Normally, you also read it on the Handelsblatt, for example, the multiples went up with 6x to 7x yearly premium from the past. Ours went up by 10x because, to be honest, the premium that we paid in the past, as our insurance department told me, was somewhat too low considering the global footprint that the company now have. So the EUR 7.5 million. We haven't changed anything on the insurance conditions or on the.
Volume.
On the volume or on the people being included in this framework. This is just what we copy and paste from the previous year, and that comes in half this year, half next year. We hope. I mean, this is very clearly, it comes out of that at the conclusion of Wirecard and then all these other good things we saw in the German, in particular the German economic market, Mr.
Yeah.
Winterkorn and all these others.
My recommendation would be just call just call Mr. Francesco and Mr. Winterkorn, Mr. Stadler.
Yeah. I mean, this is.
He can explain it easier.
Because of this development. We hope that the premiums are coming back again because I think this is now a real windfall profit situation that the insurance companies are getting in. It's nothing to do with the environment of BayWa or the BayWa management, of course not.
I take care of the situation here, Mr. Schwarz, and I'm very closely linked with the colleagues that they do not make any mistakes. The supervision is granted, so to say.
Maybe finally on the pellets situation. The supply situation on the pellet side, we are closely linked to a production facility.
Yeah, we are shareholder.
Yeah.
In the northern Bavaria, in one production, and we have plans to expand this business as well. We are here not the key shareholder of the production, but we are one of the shareholders, and we expect to have more production sites where we are stakeholder just to make sure that the supply chain is our own, maybe a little bit too much, but that we have direct access to the volumes. It's really interesting that the pellet heating systems are increasing really. It's interesting development, so to say.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Sven Sauer from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. I have two questions. Thank you for taking them. The first is regarding the ESG syndicated loan. You mentioned that half has been drawn, of which half for the harvest and other half for the RE business. Could you provide some color what if there are any terms in what you're able to invest in? Can you use it for all of your segments? The second question is regarding Cefetra. It was a very strong nine months and somewhat slower growth in Q3 despite still seeing high market prices. Is there a reason for this, or am I just reading this wrong? Thank you.
Regarding Cefetra, these were higher logistics costs due to the restriction we are faced with in the international market. Charter vessels and the overall supply chain is much more costly as it was the months before. It has to do with energy prices and container situation and so forth. Nevertheless, there is no danger upcoming for the last quarter, especially also due to our extremely successful specialty business development over the last years. Regarding ESG, maybe for the colleagues who are not so long with BayWa, we were one of the first ESG companies in Europe as we started the renewable energy business in 2009.
We changed our product portfolio in more or less all our business segments to become more ESG oriented, and for me important is E and S, by the way. G, governance, nice to have, but in reality it should be profitability because this was the fundamental original definition of sustainability. That's also part of my lecture at the university, by the way. I don't talk about cheap, but about profitability and the economy, which is very important. Without economy and without profits, you can forget all. The E and the S is more or less covered in all our business segments. Where we are still in a so-called dirty business, like conventional energy, we are in a transition period, as I mentioned in my presentation. We are very successful here, and this takes time, step by step.
Our expectation is that especially the heating oil business will decline over the next years. But also step by step because we have so many heating oil systems in the markets still, and this needs to be supplied from anyone. That's BayWa is one of the key suppliers in this market. If you look at the agriculture business, the chemicals on the soil, so to say, the crop protection fertilizer. First of all, it depends a little bit on the legal restrictions, the taxonomy of the European Union. We will see what the outcome in concrete will be for the CAP, so the Common Agricultural Policy here in Europe. It's still unclear.
For Germany, it's also unclear the outcome of the coalition negotiations at this point in time. We are really in a very, very good shape, otherwise we wouldn't have got the EUR 1.7 billion as a syndicated loan. Andreas, do you want to add on this something?
Mr. Sauer, on your question about the use of the proceeds and the volume that you mentioned. Just to make it very clear, the overall facility, I mean, it's just a frame, you know that. It's just a facility. This has been EUR 1.7 billion drawn by the end of September, where roughly half of it, EUR 800 million roughly, were drawn. We are not limited or restricted for the use of the proceeds, so we can use it for any kind of the businesses.
We have allocated EUR 570 million to our renewable energy businesses and this is also given to them already. Another EUR 200 million is reserved for guarantees. EUR 1.5 billion is the cash draw facility that we can use for any of these activities, even if it's agriculture or if it's RE. That EUR 1.7 billion substitutes the credit facility that we had bilateral in the past of about EUR 1.2 billion, so increased by EUR 500 million, but over the facility, and it's drawn only by half by the end of September.
Okay. Thank you.
We'll now take the next question from Knud Hinkel from Pareto Securities.
Yeah. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three, actually. First one, you mentioned on one slide that you incurred losses, investment losses from Austrian juices. Maybe you can remind us what this is about. Second question, here I'm admittedly a little bit late. You mentioned on the last call that you incurred losses from two wind farms in Texas, and I was a little bit confused after the call because you said that you wanted to develop an IPP business but this seems that you already have some IPP business. Maybe you can say something if that assumption is right and how much megawatts you have already under your roof and where it's located.
Last question, a more general one. Everybody talking inflation these days. I know that you have a very large workforce, because BayWa is a very personnel-intensive business. Do you see already some wage inflation, or do you see it coming? What are your potential countermeasures? I mean, you have probably good pricing power on the top line right now, but do you see also some inflation regarding personnel costs? That would be my questions. Thank you.
Coming to the last question. In the beginning, if you agree, the inflation, wage inflation, I can't see because the increase of the so-called collective bargaining agreement with the union here just for Germany is over two years, 4.8% with some so-called three months. Insofar that's in the normal range of wage increases which we had over the last 14 years, as long as I'm here. No big change. Of course, the business segments in which we are are very HR-driven and intensive. That's right. We have around about 25,000 people on board at this point in time, increasing. We hope we can increase because we are in the middle of the war for talents, especially in renewable energy.
We need more and more people to handle all this, all the projects which we have in the pipeline. This is not a German issue, it's an international challenge for us. This is not easy to handle. Inflation in connection with wages is, for me, at this point in time, not a critical issue. Andreas, would you answer the Austria Juice thing?
Yes. Mr. Hinkel, if I may, on the Austria Juice issue, it's included in the other activities. First, what is it? It's been a remainder that we have from our formerly in Austria and the RWA part of the food production business. We were in the food production business in these days also with French fries and potato businesses and things like that. The only thing that the colleagues in Vienna kept so far is a stake, an equity stake in apple juice production. It's together with Agrana. This is Austria Juice. It's included in the other activities because it's not core business, therefore, it's not included in Global Produce, but it's a part of the other activities.
We suffered some losses from the harvesting season the year before, and it sums up to some losses of EUR 4.6 million by the end of September. It will pick up by the end of the year. It's expected to be a remaining loss of EUR 2.5 million overall. So far we have EUR 4.6 million. By the end of the year, that should increase. As I said, it should only be EUR 2.5 million. But it's a retailing business, so to say, and therefore, it's kept under other activities. The other question you raised was about the RE losses from the U.S. business.
We have two wind parks. Two wind farms, I guess, in Texas that suffered losses from this black swan event that we had earlier in this year. The very low temperatures. You remember this in the Texas areas that knocked out all the utilities, all the power producers. We have two wind farms there, which are not included under IPP, I guess.
No, I'm not.
These are project that we are currently running.
Yes.
They are already on the grid, and we got these losses of EUR 18 million overall that are already included in the fantastic numbers. It's overcompensated by the fantastic business on the RE side. Volume-wise, what you asked, we have already roughly 600 MW on facilities on our balance sheet. That's mostly the wind park, a huge wind park in Spain that we got with us when we acquired the former Renaco place, Renaco company. So far, we have roughly between 500 MW-600 MW on our balance sheets.
To give you a flavor what means IPP, we agreed upon with EIP, Mr. Dürreck and his team, that over the next years, till 2028, it's a frame for this cooperation and joint venture that we install or that we create an IPP business unit on the basis of 3.5 GW max. This is a process over the next years because it has to do with the capital employed, it has to do with the balance sheet, but also with the stability for the running income. Texas was an unpleasant one, hopefully one-time negative event or accident, incident, you name it.
Thank you very much. Maybe one follow-up question on the 600 MW you have already on balance sheet. Is it ephemeral? Is it, could you imagine that you sell it one day, or is it, do you plan to stick to it? Or is it maybe it will become part of the IPP business at one point in time. What is it exactly? What is it? Because for me, renewable business was always the trading of PV modules and the project business. And that seems to be something different to run a wind park.
This was the basis for the joint venture that we expand our business models on the basis of IPP as well plus project development and the trading and also the solution business and the service business. That's getting more and more complex, our different business models under the umbrella of BayWa r.e. AG. The IPP business has the goal to stabilize the running income on the basis of projects we take on the balance sheet. Nevertheless, the most important part of the next years will be the project development and also the exit of this different facilities. It is an add-on to our business structure and the business models, and this was really crucial and important for the investment of our partners in Zurich.
To be very clear on this, Mr. Hinkel, these 500 MW-600 MW are the basis of the development of the IPP. It goes clearly into the IPP. The portfolio is not ready for sale or available for sale. This is the base of the IPP part.
Okay. Very clear. Thanks.
We will now take the next question from Anne Margaret Crow from Edison. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen, and congratulations on a really great first three quarters of the year. Yeah, brilliant. I have sort of two questions. One is looking at the change in pattern of oil sales. Clearly a lot of the reduction this year will have been a reversal of the increase that you had last year because low prices this year, high prices this year. You were talking about an underlying trend with a reduction in demand for heating oil. I would be grateful if you could provide a little bit more information on that, whether that's being driven by legislation or just customer choices. That's my first question. The second one is about renewable energy. I'm wondering whether you are seeing any demand so far for including energy storage with your projects. Thank you.
Okay, good. Let's start. First of all, it's always a pleasure to have you in this analyst conference.
Thank you.
I hadn't had a chance yet to come to London, as we said last time, due to this pandemic situation. It's unbelievable. Maybe next time. What is the comment on this heating oil thing? First of all, it will have a link to the legislation. We expect in more or less many European countries, and especially in the European Union, that we will see a regulation regarding the permission for heating oil systems in the future. We do not expect that under ESG circumstances, heating oil is still, let me say, a key aspect of our business, but also for the market at all. The customer behavior and the customer demand is decreasing because many house owners are changing the heating system.
In so far, heating oil is still a cash cow, but declining over the next years. Once upon, I think it will be forbidden by the governments and the parliaments. As part of ESG, of course, and the sustainable finance regulation of the European Union and the taxonomy of the finance regulation of the European Union and also the behavior of the ECB, we expect that the decline will speed up much more than people could imagine, just for instance, one or two years ago. That's to the heating oil and renewable energy. Of course, the storage aspect is also becoming more and more important for the residential PV systems. The storage is today already part of the overall system solution for the provider.
Of course, the big facilities, the big power plants, that's still an open issue. Technology is more or less through, but the costs to build such type of storage are still extremely high. It's hardware and as you know, hardware costs always and hardware prices always decline over the years. I expect over the next few years, I don't know when, let me say three to five years, I expect that the importance of storage systems in the RE business is becoming much more important. At this point in time, it's not really a significant profit contributor or something like that.
That's very helpful. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you in London when you can.
Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Anything else?
As there are no further questions, I'd like to hand the call back over to your host for any closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you very much for your interest and time. I think it's a little bit too early to wish you Merry Christmas. We wish you a nice St. Martin's Day and stay healthy and talk to you soon. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Thank you. That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.