Dear Breeders,
the next delegates' assembly of the Association of Breeders of the Holsteiner Horse will take place on 13 June 2024. As every year, the financial situation of the Holsteiner Verband will be reported on during this meeting. Traditionally, the executive board and managing director of the Holsteiner Verband meet with all district chairpersons around four weeks prior to the delegates' assembly to discuss essential aspects confidentially and in advance and to obtain feedback. Such a meeting took place on 13 May 2024.
To our regret, a participant of this meeting independently and without consultation circulated a self-compiled protocol which is incomplete and partially incorrect regarding the financial situation of the Verband and its subsidiaries. For this reason, the executive board and managing director wish to comment on the 2023 financial year balance sheets and the outlook for the Holsteiner Verband and its subsidiaries prior to their publication.
In its operational business (prior to the revaluation of the Vermarktungs GmbH and the IAFH), the Association of Breeders of the Holsteiner Horse achieved a loss of approximately -65,000 euros in 2023. The main reason for this loss is the high expenditure incurred by the two young stallion licencing events to be financed by the Verband in 2023, as well as an IT system conversion. Based on the business plan submitted by the IAFH (International Association of Future Horse Breeding GmbH & Co.KG), and after consultation with the auditor, the Verband decided to fully write off the asset value for the IAFH, which was listed on the balance sheet at 155,000 euros. Furthermore, a write-down of around 420,000 euros was made at the Vermarktungs und Auktions GmbH, which, based on the business plan submitted by the Vermarktungs und Auktions GmbH, accounts for the balance sheet loss realised in 2023 and expected in 2024. For the year 2024, the Verband forecasts a balance sheet loss of approximately -75,000 euros, taking into account the expected decline in foal registration income. The executive board and management of the Verband are responding to the economic situation through a combination of revenue and expense-side measures that will take full effect in 2025. With the help of these measures, a balance sheet result of +200,000 euros is targeted for 2025. Achieving the targeted balance sheet result for 2025 would enable the Verband to initiate and soundly finance necessary investments in the Elmshorn Verband facility.
The Hengsthaltungs GmbH achieved a loss of approximately -727,000 euros in 2023. This weak result was caused on the one hand by declining covering figures due to the veterinary fee schedule (GOT) and on the other hand by unachieved sales proceeds from commercial horses. For 2024, the Hengsthaltungs GmbH expects a balance sheet profit of approximately 80,000 euros based on a stable stud business, the partial sale of the frozen semen inventory, and targeted sales proceeds for commercial horses.
The Vermarktungs und Auktions GmbH achieved a loss of approximately -353,000 euros in 2023. Taking into account the personnel costs re-analysed since 2023, the provision dissolved in 2022, and obligations from 2021 cleared in 2023, the Vermarktungs GmbH has improved its operational result by approximately 180,000 euros compared to 2022. For 2024, the Vermarktungs und Auktions GmbH aims for an improvement in results of approximately 200,000 euros with the help of the newly created trade and training offering, in order to then achieve profitability following the full implementation of the trade and training offering in 2025. The high demand experienced by the Vermarktungs und Auktions GmbH in the first months since the creation of this new offering, as well as initial economic successes at the auction in March 2024, make the executive board and management optimistic that they have now developed a business model that places the Vermarktungs und Auktions GmbH on a sound economic footing sustainably and in the medium term.
Finally, the executive board and management would like to point out that the sum of the balance sheets of the Holsteiner Verband and its subsidiaries still shows liquidity of approximately 1.7 million euros even after the economically weak year 2023, with a continued high equity ratio of over 60 percent.
We hope that this preliminary information has cleared up any confusion regarding the economic situation of the Verband and point out that minor deviations in the figures communicated in this announcement are fundamentally possible until the final publication of the balance sheets.
The Executive Board and Managing Directors of the Holsteiner Verband
