I am very happy to be able to address you directly for the first time as Chief Executive Officer of MVV Energie via this annual report. You will surely ask what changes will result from the succession at the top of this company. I intend to answer this question openly and in complete agreement with my colleagues on the Executive Board, Dr. Werner Dub, Hans-Jürgen Farrenkopf and Karl-Heinz Trautmann. However, before we direct our attention to the future, let us first look back at the past years and at the man who shaped these times: Roland Hartung.

An era came to end when Roland Hartung stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of MVV Energie on September 30, 2003. Mr. Hartung led our company for fifteen years, during which time Europe’s energy markets were liberalised, MVV Energie went public and developed into an international provider of multi-utility energy services.

The MVV Energie Group has undergone rapid growth in recent years. In general it has grown horizontally through acquisition of other energydistribution utilities whose core business activities are similar to those of MVV Energie and who have equally promising customer potential. Conversely, our efforts during fiscal year 2002/03 were primarily focused on integration of our recently acquired participations into the corporate group. A number of measures have been implemented to promote greater co-operation within the corporate group, to co-ordinate business processes and procedures with one another as well as to optimise internal workflows.

The annual financial statements for 2002/03, which are presented in this report, have confirmed the excellent substance of MVV Energie: Compared to last year, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the MVV Energie Group have increased despite high investments in renewable energy projects. This significant improvement in earnings was largely attributable to the successful sale of our shares in Gasversorgung Süddeutschland GmbH. The one-off profit was used for strengthening equity, for retiring debt and for restructuring purposes, i.e., for measures that will substantially enhance the competitiveness of our corporate group. EBIT adjusted for this one-off factor rose by 6% from Euro 114 million to Euro 121 million. We have thus been able to achieve our target of 5% growth – based on adjusted EBIT – and, in fact, have slightly exceeded it.

Sales of the MVV Energie Group, which had already attained a high level last year, rose by 1% to Euro 1.7 billion. In light of the bleak economy and the difficult climate in our sector, we consider this a success – even if we did not achieve our sales target of Euro 2 billion despite positive developments in volume in our end-consumer business.