The serious fraud with recycling metals is costing Europe's largest copper group Aurubis more than 150 million euros and is also affecting the major shareholder Salzgitter.

After a specially scheduled inventory, precious metals worth 185 million euros were missing, Aurubis explained in Hamburg on Tuesday. The company can expect 30 million euros from the insurance company and from confiscated assets. However, Aurubis and the steel group Salzgitter, which holds a stake of just under 30 percent, have had to significantly lower their profit forecasts for the current year due to the theft.

When recycling metals are delivered and processed at Aurubis, the proportion of precious metals with samples is estimated. These had apparently been manipulated; in fact, the delivered material contained far less valuable metals, so that Aurubis paid too much for them. Aurubis had already discovered the suspected fraud in June; there was talk of organized gang theft. At the end of August, the Hamburg-based company spoke of a possible loss in the low three-digit million range. Following the special inventory, the result is now clear.

Aurubis CEO Roland Harings wants to prevent similar cases in future: "Our ambition is to increase security measures so that theft and fraud become impossible." This includes stricter access regulations and stricter checks on people and vehicles. Customers have not been affected by the fraud. Investigations into whether and which suppliers were affected are still ongoing.

Aurubis' operating profit will be 140 to 200 million euros lower than originally planned in fiscal year 2022/23, which ends at the end of September, due to the fraud: The company now only expects to make between 310 and 350 million euros - until the end of August, the target was still 450 to 550 million. Major shareholder Salzgitter, whose balance sheet includes Aurubis' results on a pro rata basis, is now only forecasting an operating result (EBITDA) of € 650 to 700 million for 2022/23, with earnings before taxes of between € 200 and 250 million. Salzgitter had withdrawn its previous forecast of 700 to 750 million euros EBITDA and 300 to 400 million euros pre-tax profit in light of the events at Aurubis.

Relief prevailed on the stock exchange on Tuesday, where worse had apparently been feared: Aurubis shares, which are listed in the MDax second-line index and had slumped sharply, recovered by 3.4 percent to 69.66 euros. Salzgitter rose in the SDax by 0.8 percent to 24.56 euros.

(Report by Jan C. Schwartz, Tom Käckenhoff and Alexander Hübner; edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)