FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The biofuel producer Verbio has scared away investors on Tuesday with weak figures for the past fiscal year and a disappointing profit outlook. Many investors pulled the ripcord, at times the stock slumped more than 14 percent to 32.94 euros, hitting a low since May. Investors had experienced an even worse moment at the end of April, when the share, which is listed in the SDax small cap index, fell to its lowest point for the year to date at 29.93 euros after months of decline. At that time, Verbio had also disappointed and lowered its outlook for the fiscal year that has now ended due to its problems.

On the one hand, Verbio is struggling with high energy and raw material costs, and on the other, the Leipzig-based company is having to contend with falling sales prices. Constantin Hesse of the analysis house Jefferies spoke on Tuesday of a very disappointing profit outlook, which is mainly due to the lower biodiesel prices. In his view, imports from Asia in particular, "which were probably mislabeled," are weighing on current price levels. For this reason, Verbio's operating profit is likely to remain at a low level in the new fiscal year, Hesse said.

However, the industry expert did have some positive things to say about the final quarter of the last fiscal year - he spoke of solid earnings that even exceeded market expectations. The operating result, meanwhile, was as expected. But for the year as a whole, he said, operating profit slumped even more sharply than he had feared.

According to one trader, Verbio's forecast for the new year is still well below market expectations, even at the upper end of the range. Another thing that apparently strikes many investors negatively is that the biofuel producer is looking at a clearly negative cash flow due to high capital expenditures. This generally reduces the prospect of decent shareholder returns.

In general, Verbio investors have had to put up with some disappointments in recent months. After two years of fulminant share price increases, the share price is now consistently heading downwards again. In November 2022, the share came close to its previous record of 88.10 euros from April of the same year, but has since lost around two-thirds of its value to date. In the year to date alone, the stock is now down by around 44 percent, making it one of the biggest SDax losers./tav/ag/men