In 2018, VNG AG spun off its sales and trading business into a separate legal entity, VNG Handel & Vertrieb GmbH. This step was necessary for regulatory reasons, but it also adds transparency to the business performance of the VNG Group for outsiders, because VNG Handel & Vertrieb publishes its own annual report.
The VNG Group is currently performing very well, the earnings for 2019 were above their own expectations (ener|gate Gasmarkt 05/20). Although the group’s TSO Ontras still provides the biggest chunk of the earnings, the storage business – more about this later in this edition (see chapter 3.4.1) – and also the business unit Handel & Vertrieb (Sales & Trading) make substantial contributions to the overall earnings. The annual report of VNG Handel & Vertrieb was published in the Federal Bulletin on July 20. The earnings after taxes, based on the financial statement under German commercial law, which were transferred to the holding company VNG, rose from 3.4 to 20.7 million euros.
But not only the figures of the VNG Group are good. VNG is actively seeking inorganic growth options. The company is financially and structurally capable of handling acquisitions. In July, VNG was picked as the buyer of Gas-Union. The German Federal antitrust authority has already approved the merger. Some supervisory boards of Gas-Union shareholders still have to give their approval – but that is more a formality. The final closing is expected in September. You will find the report about the takeover in chapter 4.1.1 of this edition. ener|gate Gasmarkt talked about the development of the company and the success factors with the two managing directors Kerstin Schultheiß and Konstantin Herzog von Oldenburg.