If you have ever founded a company, then you face the same problem as when you have a child: you have to find a name. And nowadays it is not so easy.

What is a „Kontor“ actually? According to my opinion, the name choice of the company Energiekontor listed on the General Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was rather off the mark. If you, like me, cannot make anything of the term „Kontor“: According to ChatGPT, a Kontor is a „business room, commercial office or trading branch“.

The term arrived in the High German literary language from the Low German in the 16th century. One could also simply say: The term is a bit outdated.

Nevertheless, the company is doing quite well on the stock exchange. Energiekontor weighs in with a market capitalization of just under 1 billion euros. „And with what?“, you will ask yourself.

Overview of business model Since its founding in 1990 in Bremerhaven, Energiekontor has been one of the leading German project developers of wind and solar parks. The core business extends from planning to construction to operation both at home and abroad. So far, more than 150 wind and solar park projects with a total rated output of more than 1.3 gigawatts and an investment volume of more than 1.8 billion euros have been realized.

In addition, Energiekontor currently operates 40 wind and solar parks with a total rated output of around 390 megawatts.

In addition to its head office in Bremen, Energiekontor has offices in Bremerhaven, Hagen im Bremischen, Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Berlin-Spandau, Potsdam and Hildesheim. Energiekontor is represented with its own branches in England, Scotland, Portugal, France and the United States.

Sale of another wind park The company sold a Scottish wind park project at the end of last week and therefore raised its forecast for the financial year 2023. First of all, to the sold onshore wind park project: This is the Garbet project near the town of Dufftown in the northeast of Scotland. And if you’ve ever been to Scotland, you know it’s very windy there.

The buyer of the wind park project is a fund managed by Capital Dynamics, an independent, global private asset management company. The wind park is expected to start commercial operation by the end of 2026 and will have a total output of up to 46 megawatts.

Raising of guidance On the occasion of the positive development in the project business and in particular due to the sale of the wind park project, Energiekontor raised the target range for the group pre-tax result for the current financial year 2023.

The previously confirmed forecast was to increase the pre-tax result of the previous year of 62.9 million euros by 10 to 20 percent. Now the management is expecting a pre-tax result in the range of 80 to 100 million euros. This corresponds to an increase of around 30 to 60 percent compared to the previous year.

The stock market welcomed the news. The share rose by around 5 percent, but at 74 euros it is still well below the all-time high of more than 100 euros last summer. However, the valuation of the share leaves plenty of room for further upside potential: According to the analysts, the price-earnings ratio on the basis of the earnings estimates for 2024 is currently 18.7. You see: An old-fashioned company name does not necessarily have to be disadvantageous.