Profits related to the war in Ukraine are a delicate matter.

Nobody likes to admit that they are taking advantage of the Russian attack on their neighboring country.

However, a look at the business figures of Leipzig-based Verbio AG suggests an interpretation.

"Of course we're benefiting from the rise in gas prices," admitted their CEO, Claus Sauter, on Tuesday during the annual balance sheet press conference.

His almost 1000 employees and he presented a series of record values.

Annual sales rose by 77 percent to more than 1.8 billion euros.

A little more than 500 million euros remain as an operating result.

That is three times as much as in the previous year.

The Ebitda margin reached a value of 28 percent, an increase of 12 percentage points compared to the previous year.

The success is partly due to the fact that Verbio is Germany's largest producer of biomethane.

In the past fiscal year, it was almost 885,000 megawatt hours.

Sauter sees this as an important element in replacing natural gas from Russia.

It can be used in transport, for industrial applications and in power and heat generation.

"In perspective, up to 50 percent of Russian natural gas can be replaced by biomethane from local production."

How green are biofuels?

However, Verbio's main business is the production of biodiesel and bioethanol.

Here, too, there have been price increases in recent months, which have had a positive impact on business.

Although Verbio produced less biodiesel than in the previous year, sales in this segment almost doubled.

On the stock exchange, the share rose by 13 percent on Tuesday.

Shareholders still have to be content with a dividend of 20 cents per share in February.

The distribution has therefore remained unchanged since 2018.

Sauter justified the reluctance with planned investments in modern biofuels and the globalization of the business.

That will also be necessary.

Under the current production conditions, the sustainability of biofuels is controversial.

Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (both Green) want to gradually reduce the admixture of first-generation biodiesel and bioethanol, for the production of which food and feed plants are used, to zero by 2030.

In light of the food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine in particular, food should be on the plate and not in the tank.

SPD and FDP continue to rely on biofuels.

If Verbio's plans for the future bear fruit, the company need not fear the Green Minister's ban at all.

In the USA and India, the company is investing in production facilities for second-generation biofuels.

These advanced biofuels are made from crop residues or leftovers from food production.

In the USA and India, it is corn and rice straw that have not been used after harvest and are burned.

Verbio is therefore not pursuing plans to reduce production due to cheaper imports from the USA, like its competitor Crop-Energies.

“We diversified early on and don't only produce in Europe.

We are part of the cheap exports from the USA,” explained Sauter.

50 million euros for PCK refinery

In the next financial year, Sauter aims to convert 30 percent of all production to advanced biofuels.

The three German locations in Bitterfeld, Zörbig and Schwedt must also contribute to this.

Verbio has been working on the latter on the PCK site since 2005.

The refinery has been the focus of German energy policy since Russia's war against Ukraine.

It is owned by Rosneft Germany.

The subsidiary of the Russian mineral oil company was placed under the trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency in mid-September.

The future of the refinery is still uncertain.

Verbio has clear ideas for PCK.

Renewable and synthetic fuels are to be produced in the refinery.

There are enough farmers in the region who are looking for buyers for their residual products.

Sauter is therefore confident about the future of the site.

His company has invested around 50 million euros in PCK.

The state government in Potsdam and the mayor in Schwedt are working flat out on unbureaucratic solutions.

Sauter misses this pragmatism in the production of Bio-LNG.

Just as the bioethanol manufacturer was able to quickly switch its production to disinfectants during the corona pandemic, it would also like to support the supply of LNG now.

However, regulatory hurdles stand in the way.

Which one exactly?

"Those are little things.

Nobody understands them," said Sauter when asked by the FAZ

Verbio is already building a liquefaction plant for bio-LNG at the Zörbig site.

This is intended to stabilize the supply on the German gas market.

Sauter is optimistic about the German economy next year.

"We will see cheap gas again," he predicts unselfishly.