In a changing economic context, the company has revised its forecasts for 2021 EBITDA upward to a range of 830 to 890 million euros in light of the good business performance and certain one-off effects recorded in the period.
Milan, October 29, 2021 – The Edison Board of Directors met yesterday and examined the Quarterly Report at September 30, 2021 which closed with a solid growth in all financial statement items driven by the performance of all business areas.
In particular, in the first nine months of the year Edison’s revenues increased by 51.5% to 6,849 million euros from 4,521 million euros in the same period of 2020, benefiting from the recovery in economic activity and the rise in sales prices related to the commodity market.
The EBITDA was also up sharply rising 32.3% to 676 million euros from 511 million euros in the first nine months of 2020, mainly due to the positive performance of Electric Power Operations. This sector benefited from the positive contribution of all its business areas, from renewable and thermoelectric generation to the production portfolio optimisation activities and downstream activities. Gas Operations improved thanks also to the one-off contribution of the Infrastrutture Distribuzione Gas (IDG) sale.
The Group closed the first nine months of the year with a net profit of 435 million euros, compared to a net loss of 78 million euros in the same period of 2020. This result was due to the good industrial performance - driven by the recovery in the economic scenario – to non-recurring elements related to non-Energy Activities and positively to the option exercise to realign the fiscal value of some assets and of the goodwill. The current net result is 326 million euros.
Financial debt at September 30, 2021 decreased to 407 million euros, from 520 million euros at December 31, 2020 and reflects Edison’s investments, mainly in low-carbon generation, as well as the extraordinary transactions carried out during the period (acquisition of 70% of Edison Rinnovabili, formerly E2i Energie Speciali, sale of the E&P activities in Norway and of IDG), in line with its commitment to accompanying the Country on its path to decarbonisation targets.
The relevance of strategic decisions taken in the recent period by Edison to focus on the energy transition activities, the achieved results and the new company’s risk profile led the rating agencies to upgrade their evaluation.
EDISON GROUP HIGHLIGHTS
| in millions of euros |
9 months 2021 |
9 months 2020 |
|---|
| Sales revenues |
6,849 |
4,521 |
| EBITDA |
676 |
511 |
| EBIT |
296 |
169 |
| Net profit from continuing operations |
438 |
102 |
| Group interest in profit (loss) |
435 |
(78) |
Group performance at September 30, 2021
As the economic scenario progressively strengthened, the first nine months of 2021 saw a significant recovery in energy demand and a rise in commodity prices after the contraction of the previous year.
In particular, Italian demand for electricity increased by 6.2% to 239 TWh from 225.1 TWh in the first nine months of 2020. To the rise in demand corresponded the growth in wind power production (+5.3% to 14.6 TWh), hydroelectric production (+0.7% to 36.7 TWh) and thermoelectric production (+0.3% to 130.3 TWh), which together more than offset the drop in photovoltaic production (-3.4% to 21 TWh). Imports also grew: +65.7% to 34.1 TWh. The Single National Price (abbreviated as “PUN”) grew nearly three-fold on the same period of the previous year, hitting an average of 86.2 euro/MWh compared to 35.6 euro/MWh.
Similarly, demand for gas grew 7.2% to 53.2 billion cubic meters in the period, up from 49.6 billion cubic meters in the same period of 2020. All gas segments showed growth: residential consumption was up 12% (to 20 billion cubic meters), industrial consumption rose 8.4% (to 13.1 billion cubic meters) and gas consumption for thermoelectric generation increased 1.9% (to 18.5 billion cubic meters). The average spot gas price in Italy was 31.8 euro cents per cubic meter, compared to 9.5 cents per cubic meter in the first nine months of 2020.
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