The A2a board of directors approved today the preliminary accounts for 2018: the final and complete ones will be communicated at the beginning of April, but in the meantime some interesting data is emerging. In particular, the Ebitda or profitability of the energy company grew to 1,23 billion (+3%, which would be +5% net of non-recurring items), and investments increased by half a billion in the last calendar year (+11%). In addition, debts are down slightly: the net financial position now stands at 3,02 billion (from 3,23 billion at the end of 2017) for a ratio with the gross operating margin which is reduced from 2,7 to 2,5 times and a generation of net cash of over 200 million.
For now, the utility has announced, without providing details, that all business units – with the exception of the networks – reported an increase in ordinary results over the previous year. Also in 2018, A2a concluded M&A operations on renewables for 116 million, coming to hold energy from green sources, above all solar (and obviously excluding hydroelectric), for 98 MW.
“We are very satisfied with this year's results both at an absolute level and for each individual business unit – he commented in a note the managing director Luca Valerio Camerano – it was another year in which we managed to simultaneously improve profitability, investments and the capital structure, confirming the validity of the strategic direction undertaken five years ago”. Even the president Giovanni Valotti underlined how "2018 consolidates the process of strengthening our company and lays the foundations for further future developments: a design understood and shared also by other companies with which we have concluded important partnership operations".
The stock on the Stock Exchange quite well after the communication of the accounts: on a substantially flat day for Piazza Affari, A2a gained about a quarter of a percentage point at just under 1,6 euros per share at the beginning of the afternoon.
