After-Mining Expenses - The endowment of the RAG Foundation increases to 18 billion euros.
Last year, the RAG Foundation, responsible for managing the perpetual responsibilities following German coal mining, spent €266 million. This is €19 million more than in 2022, as they revealed in Essen on a recent Tuesday.
Much of this increase stems from higher energy expenses. Since the closure of German coal mining in 2018, the foundation has invested €1.3 billion in long-term projects. These ventures span across the realms of education, research, and culture, with €32 million allocated in 2023.
As of May 2023, the RAG Foundation's assets totalled approximately €18 billion. This is an uptick from the €16.8 billion recorded at the end of 2022 and €17.5 billion at the end of 2023, despite them being slightly reduced in May 2024 to around €18 billion. The foundation has minimized its reliance on particular investments in its portfolio, as disclosed. After the latest May sale of roughly 5% of Evonik's core capital, Evonik's stake now represents just a quarter of the foundation's assets.
The foundation has also experienced losses due to the insolvency of the Austrian real estate and trading company Signa. The investment in the company has since been expunged. The Foundation's CFO, Jürgen Rupp, projected the loss to be €189 million. "This loss is undoubtedly regrettable, but as our yearly report demonstrates, our investment capital and risk management can accommodate such pressures," he stated in an earlier-released declaration.
The endowment for perpetual tasks now sits at €9.1 billion.
Established in 2007, the RAG Foundation's purpose is to finance the continuous costs from German coal mining. These long-standing obligations involve tasks with no end date, such as continually pumping out mine water.
