Enel closes a difficult year with respectable results and some records to present to shareholders at the May 2023 shareholders' meeting. The Enel group closes the budget 2022 with turnover of 140,5 billion (+63,9%), a Ebitda reached almost 20 billion (+2,5%), a dividend total growing to 40 cents and a floor buyback of shares to be proposed to the shareholders' meeting for a further 2 billion. They are the definitive data of the budget 2022, approved by the board of directors and presented to analysts by the CEO Francesco Starace and the CFO Alberto De Paoli. In the year of war in Ukraine and the heaviest energy shock, theordinary profit of the group remains stable at 5,391 billion euros, a slight decrease of 200 million on 2021, but higher - specifies the company statement - than the guidance communicated to the financial markets last November which indicated a range between 5,0-5,3 billion. The management was thus able to compensate for the compression of the results in Italy due to the particular energy scenario in the dark year of the war and the gas that shot above 300 euros. L'group net income it went from 3,1 billion to 1,68 billion (-47,3%).
Enel 2022 financial statements, Starace: a difficult year, results beyond guidance
Despite "the highly challenging environment that has characterized the last three years", the group has created value for stakeholders, he commented Francesco Starace, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Enel. “We were able to exceed the guidance announced to the markets. Based on these results, we are offering our shareholders a dividend of €0,40 per share, up on the previous year”. The objectives for the coming months of the year, continued the manager, are to “continue to grow in renewables and digitize networks of distribution, contributing to decarbonize the mix of generation and ad increase energy independence in the geographies in which we operate, improving the quality of the service, enabling the electrification of final consumption and protecting our customers from the volatility of the energy markets. We will concentrate the ininvestments especially in Italy and in the other core countries, in order to accelerate the Group's sustainable growth path, further reducing its risk profile.”
The numbers of the Enel 2022 budget, definitive, confirm those foreplay already communicated by the group. Going into more detail, the dividend total proposed for the entire financial year 2022 is equal to 0,40 euro per share (of which 0,20 euro already paid as an interim payment in January 2023), up by 5,3% compared to the total dividend of 0,38 euro recognized for the full year of 2021. Ordinary Ebitda rises to 19,6 billion. Excluding some extraordinary items (in 2021, the sale of the stake in Open Fiber, in 2022 the capital gains from the sale of the shares in Ufinet and Grispertise as well as the companies transferred to Mooney Group) the increase in ordinary EBITDA is 1,4 billion. Ebit rose to 11,19 billion (+48,2%) while the group's net ordinary income remained substantially stable at 5,39 billion (-200 million compared to 2021).
Debt at 60 billion, investments over 14 billion, record of new renewable capacity
Il debt it stops at 60,06 billion in line with the guidance and with the planned decline since 2023-2025 Plan which includes a program of sales of 21 billion, already launched in 2023 with the exit of Enel from Romania (1,2 billion euros), the sale of the Brazilian company Celg (1,6 billion dollars) and the sale of some assets in Argentina (102 million). Precisely speaking of divestments with analysts, Starace indicated that the sale of assets in Peru is proceeding and news could "arrive before the end of the semester".
They have further increased investments of the group on renewables and networks which exceeded 14,34 billion (compared to 12,9 billion in 2021, + 10,4%). In 2022 Enel achieved record growth in new renewable capacity installed: + 5.223 MW and is approaching a total of 60.000 MW which makes it the first private green operator in the world, confirming the decarbonisation objectives already announced to the market.
