HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - Aurubis earned more in the first half of the fiscal year thanks to good demand for copper. The company also benefited from lower energy prices. This more than compensated for lower refining charges for the processing of recycling materials as well as higher legal costs and severance payments for departing board members, the company announced in Hamburg on Wednesday. The copper processor confirmed its profit target for the current financial year (end of September). The share price rose somewhat more sharply in early trading. In the late morning, it was still up 0.2 percent at 69.45 euros.

In the first six months, operating earnings before taxes increased by 1.7 percent to 243 million euros compared to the same period last year. The company exceeded analysts' average expectations. While the copper group earned more in the Custom Smelting & Products segment, earnings in the Multimetal Recycling segment fell significantly. On balance, profits increased by 15 percent to a good 140 million euros.

In contrast, turnover fell by six percent to around 8.25 billion euros in the first half of the year. The company attributed this to lower copper prices and significantly lower sales of continuous castings.

The Group management around Roland Harings, who is still head of Aurubis, is still aiming for 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.

Only Inge Hofkens, Head of Recycling, who was only appointed to the Executive Board at the beginning of 2023, will remain from the old Executive Board. She will be given additional responsibilities. In addition, Supervisory Board member Markus Kramer has been appointed to the Executive Board for a limited period from March 1, where he will be responsible for the company's transformation.

In the middle of last year, a large shortfall in precious metals became known at Aurubis. In another case of fraud, internal samples to verify the metal content of deliveries of recycling materials at the Hamburg plant had been manipulated. As a result, the Group had overpaid invoices.

The Supervisory Board commissioned an investigation. In January, the company stated: "On the basis of this legal opinion by the law firm Hengeler Mueller on the responsibility of the three members of the Executive Board, the Supervisory Board has also decided to refrain from asserting claims for compensation against the three members of the Executive Board as things stand."

The turmoil comes at a bad time. Aurubis is currently investing a lot of money in the expansion of its business, which requires the full attention of the management due to its complexity. Around 1.7 billion euros in investments have currently been approved for strategic projects.

In the first half of the fiscal year, investments almost doubled to 317 million euros compared to the same period last year. In the second half of the year, recycling projects in Belgium and the first production stage at the new recycling plant in Richmond in the USA are scheduled to go into operation. With this plant, the company aims to benefit from the recycling boom in the United States./mne/niw/mis