Enel does not think of going public Open Fiber nor to enter the capital of Tim. However, Tim's eventual entry into Open Fiber is welcome. For Eletropaulus, the Brazilian distribution company, the confrontation with Neoenergia-Iberdrola postponed to June 4, after the arbitration promoted by the Spanish competitor. The group has announced new records of daily production from renewable sources this year and has already brought, in these first few months, the new green production capacity that came into operation close to the threshold of 1 GigaWatt. These are the latest news from the "Enel planet" as they emerged from the shareholders' meeting held on Thursday 24 May in Rome and from communications arriving from Brazil. An intense day for the group that lined up the president and managing director to certify the good performance of the management in front of the shareholders who approved the balance sheet and dividend and made the rules on gender equality on the board structural, inserting them in the statute.
More than 61% of the capital was present in the Enel headquarters and institutional investors reached the record share of 57%. All positive news that the CEO Francesco Starace recalled at the beginning: "Today we propose to the shareholders' meeting to distribute a dividend of 23,7 cents per share, up 32% compared to the previous year and with a higher remuneration to the targets". Starace confirmed “the dividend policy with a 70% payout expected for 2018-2020 with a minimum guaranteed dividend of 28 cents per share in 2018, up more than 30% compared to the minimum guaranteed dividend of 21 cents per share for 2017”.
Good news for shareholders, among which the Treasury stands out with 23,585% of the capital will cash a check for 568 million and the Blackrock fund with 5,105%. Lhe president of Enel, Patrizia Grieco, before him had underlined the good results "which are reflected in the performance of the Enel share: in 2017 it recorded an increase of around 22% and, if we also consider the dividends distributed, the value created for shareholders was equal to almost 28 per cent against a performance of the FtseMib of +11,7% and of the Euro Stoxx Utilities, the sector index, of +14,6%”.
But above all Grieco emphasized the fact that in 2017 Enel “it has confirmed itself as the largest integrated utility at European level, with over 52 billion euros of capitalization to 31 December, a clear increase compared to the approximately 43 billion euro of 2016".
RENEWABLES, IN 2018 1 GW OF NEW PLANTS ALREADY OPERATIONAL
Production prospects will reward renewables "with new daily production records," Grieco said. Just Thursday the group announced, through its subsidiary Enel Green Power Colombia, the start of construction work on the El Paso photovoltaic solar park which, with its 86,2 megawatts of power, will be the largest solar plant in Colombia. Enel will invest around 70 million dollars in the project, which is expected to start operating in the second half of 2018. Expected production is 176 GigaWatt hours per year. News also in Mexico where Enel Green Power has inaugurated the Don Josè mega-solar plant in San Luiz de La Paz. It is the fifth to enter service in the world this year which allows the group to bring the total capacity entered into service in the first months of 2018 to around 1 GigaWatt.
AN IPO FOR OPEN FIBER IS NOT IN SIGHT
However, telecommunications remain a topic in the spotlight. “We do not expect to list Open Fiber”Francesco Starace replied to a shareholder's question. An entry into Tim's capital is also excluded, after the change in governance: “We are not interested in being shareholders of telecommunications companies such as Telecom Italia, it is not our job. We don't see any added value." Starace recalled that Enel was “in the telecommunications with Wind and we got out of it. We don't see enough news to allow us to go back ". On the contrary, "from a business point of view, Open Fiber has always said it is interested in collaborations with telecommunications operators and if Tim wants to be part of it, Open Fiber would be happy".
DISMISSIONS, M5S CRITICISM AND CYBERSECURITY
On the divestments side, progress should be reported for the sale of the Russian power station Reftinskaya “we hope to reach an agreement for the sale in June and then define closing within the year“, concluded the manager. At the end of the afternoon, there was a grillino speech in the assembly: that of the M5S deputy Paolo Parentela critical of theMercure biomass plant. “From the point of view of authorization and sustainability, the plant complies with all the regulations,” replied Starace. As for the sale, “it is not linked to its profitability; we have an asset rotation program, a value enhancement plan and therefore if there is anyone interested, we are ready to hear the offer they make”.
Finally, cybersecurity: “It's a very important topic”. "On average - the CEO announced - in 2017, every day we received 2,8 million malicious or spam-related email messages, 900 viruses and 1.500 attacks on the web portal". All deceived.
AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIAN RAILWAYS
Another important novelty comes from Russia, where Enel, through its subsidiary for advanced energy services Enel X, and RusEnergoSbyt, an energy supplier born from a joint venture between Enel and Esn, have signed a partnership with the Russian railway company RZhDdedicated to the joint development of innovative energy storage systems to be installed along the country's railway network. It is the first time, underlines a note from Enel, that this type of technology is being used in the railway sector.
