Annus horribilis for Eon. The German energy giant has announced that it closed its 2016 accounts with a record net loss of 8,45 billion euros.
The write-downs linked to the divestments of the fossil fuel division (10 billion to be paid by mid-2017 to the government fund for the disposal of nuclear power plants, of which 8 billion already set aside) and the expected energy turnaround from Germany, which has decided to gradually abandon nuclear energy.
Eon's 2016 revenues fell 11% to $38,17 billion. The group will still distribute a dividend of 21 euro cents per share, more than halved compared to the 50 cents paid in 2015. However, the coupon should go back to 0,30 euro this year.
In 2015, in full restructuring, the group had already suffered a net loss close to 7 billion euros.
“The 2016 budget marks a caesura, which paves the way for Eon to the world of renewable energy“said CEO Johannes Teyssen.
The group reports an adjusted Ebit (excluding extraordinary items) of €3.1 billion and a net profit of €904 million, at the top of the target range. The figures indicate that the major restructuring and reorganization work, with the spin off of the conventional generation activities (nuclear, coal, gas) in Uniper and the directly managed renewable activities in E.On is bearing fruit despite the "drainage" represented by the charges for the disposal of nuclear facilities requested by the German government. In essence, the operating business is healthy. For this year the governance expects an adjusted EBIT between 2.8 and 3.1 billion and an adjusted net profit between 1.2 and 1.45 billion.
