HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - Aurubis has benefited from continued good demand for copper in the first half of the year. The operating pre-tax result increased by 1.7 percent to 243 million euros in the first six months (end of March) compared to the same period last year, as the company announced in Hamburg on Wednesday. The company exceeded the average expectations of analysts. While the copper group earned more in the Custom Smelting & Products segment, earnings in the Multimetal Recycling segment fell significantly. The Group management around Roland Harings, who is still head of Aurubis, is still targeting an operating pre-tax profit of 380 to 480 million euros for the full financial year. Although this is more than the 349 million euros achieved in 2022/23, cases of fraud and theft had also burdened the Hamburg-based company with 139 million euros.

The loss of millions of euros also led to criticism of the risk management of the company's managers. As a result - as has been known since January - almost the entire Executive Board has to go. Aurubis CEO Roland Harings, Chief Financial Officer Rainer Verhoeven and Chief Production Officer Heiko Arnold are losing their posts prematurely. A successor has already been found for Verhoeven. Mercedes Benz manager Steffen Hoffmann will take over the finance department when he joins the company on October 1, 2024, as Aurubis recently announced./mne/zb/he