REPOWER

Innovative projects launched in slaes

Kurt Bobst, CEO:

“Considering the challenging operating environment, 2011 was a positive year for Repower. In addition to a good operating result, we were able to make solid progress in developing our strategic projects.”

Innovative projects launched in sales

We are supporting the expansion of our sales operations with forward-looking projects in line with the respective market conditions of the countries we operate in.

Repower is reinforcing its position on the Swiss market, which is not yet liberalised for end customers, by becoming a service provider for energy utilities throughout Switzerland. Repartner Produktions AG, which was formed in the autumn of 2011 and has been operational since the beginning of 2012, gives energy utilities the opportunity to participate in a diversified power generation portfolio. The shareholders of the company are issued procurement rights from the co-financed plants in the areas of water, wind and gas power with planned generating capacities of around 400 megawatts in the final stage. The generation investment scheme has met with great interest on the market: the participation volume was completely used up by the beginning of 2012. With this innovative cooperation model, Repower has created proximity to the market and plans to expand the potential cooperation to the entire value chain.

In Italy Repower was able to increase sales operations profitably. In Repower's largest sales market, energy sales increased from the previous year by twelve per cent to 3.97 terawatt hours. Repower is pursuing quality leadership in sales and can, to some extent, escape the intense price war being waged by its competitors by aligning its customer portfolio accordingly. Besides a high level of service orientation, there is also a growing demand for new and innovative products. With its launch of “Verde Dentro” in the autumn of 2011, Repower introduced a product that offers more than just the conventional supply of green energy. Not only can a green power guarantee of origin be provided, but “Verde Dentro” also includes an e-mobility offering and a software application that measures the energy efficiency of electrical equipment, thus helping to positively influence consumption and costs. The first customer reactions have been very positive.

Sales activities in Germany are also undergoing positive development. As is the case in Italy, Repower focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany. Electricity sales increased threefold year-on-year, thus reaching a level that corresponds to the sales of a medium-sized utility company. The sales team in Germany also worked intensively in 2011 on preparations for entering the gas sector. With the addition of gas, customers will have the opportunity to meet all of their entire energy needs from a single source via Repower. Thanks to the existing infrastructure for acquisition, customer changeover and supply processes in the electricity segment, it was possible to implement the new offering with just a small number of adjustments and make twice as much use of the same distribution channel.

Since the middle of 2011, the Romanian sales company Elcomex EN has operated under the Repower name and corporate identity. With this step, the subsidiary was fully integrated both internally and externally and Repower now has a uniform brand in all markets. The necessary system and process adjustments to bring about integration were also undertaken in 2011.

Growth means not only that infrastructure and processes need to keep pace, employee skills and expertise also need to keep up as a company grows. To this end, Repower also carried out a number of internal projects – in the area of process and data management, in risk management and in HR development. Details of two of these projects will be presented on the next pages.

Repower was affected by two offences involving property in 2011. These extremely unpleasant events underscore the importance of adequate management and control functions. The analyses in connection with these two cases were carried out as well as the necessary measures defined and implemented.