Semester season fully enter Piazza Affari. The protagonists of today are the energy companies. After i accounts of Saipem, in the early afternoon the semesters of Snam and Acea. In both cases, the reception from the market was lukewarm: the Snam share gained 0,2%, the Acea share lost 0,79%.
Snam's half-yearly
Snam closed the first half of 2022 with a adjusted net profit equal to 646 million euros, up by 1,7% compared to the same period of 2021, "due to the positive performance of the investee companies", the group says.
Up 9,7% to 1,595 billion the revenues, while theadjusted ebitda it fell 0,7% to 1,155 billion. Snam explained that "the growth of new businesses (+13 million euro), linked to the positive contribution of energy efficiency activities, was absorbed by the reduction recorded by the core business also following the trend in provisions for risks and charges, against of releases made in the first half of 2021 for disputes that have reached conclusion".
Moving forward with the data, theadjusted ebit it dropped by 4,5% to 728 million euros. The net cash flow from operating activities was positive for 2,318 million euro, thanks above all to the dynamics of the working capital connected to the balancing activity, together with the collections deriving from the repayment of the financial credit by the subsidiary OLT, against the contextual refinancing on the market, and from the disposal of a stake in Industrie De Nora in support of the stock exchange listing of the company. In this context the free cash flow it stood at 1,749 billion euros.
Financial debt, reduction recorded
THEnet financial debt recorded a reduction of 1,199 billion euros compared to 31 December 2021, settling at 12,822 billion euros from 14,021 as at 31 December 2021. The consensus of analysts was for an ebitda of 1,153 billion euros, an ebit of 727 million, a adjusted net debt of 623 million and net debt of 13.192 million euros.
By virtue of the results achieved, Snam has increased guidance on net income 2022 to 1,13 billion euros.
Stefano Venier, CEO of Snam, explained in a commentary note that “The first half results confirm the solidity of our core business, the positive operating performance and the growth of the contribution of new businesses and investee companies. In the new geopolitical and energy context, Snam plays an increasingly central role for the security and diversification of Italy and Europe's supplies”.
Presenting the accounts, the company let the a overall storage capacity managed by the Snam group as at 30 June 2022, including strategic storage, amounted to 16,5 billion cubic meters, the highest in Europe in this period of supply difficulties across the continent. As of 25 July 2022, Snam, in its role of purchaser of last resort to support the filling of the storages, has proceeded to purchase and put into storage around 2 billion cubic meters of gas, of which around 760 million cubic meters for the operation of the infrastructure. The fill percentage reaches about 71% of the total capacity, in line with the progressive achievement of the objective of filling at least 90% of the national storage capacity established by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
“In these months, we have supported the country's energy strategy favoring the filling of storage with the purchase of around 2 billion cubic meters of gas and securing two new floating storage and regasification units – added Venier – We are also committed to enabling the energy transition, as demonstrated by our support for De Nora quotation, the main European IPO of the second quarter, and the new initiatives in biomethane, energy efficiency and carbon dioxide capture and storage”.
Acea's half-yearly report, ebtida uphill
For Acea, the first half ended with revenues up 29% to 2,348 billion euros, ebitda up 10% to 682 million ed ebit up 12% to 348 million.
Double-digit growth also forNet income, which rose by 10% to 183 million euros. Net financial debt amounted to 4,212 billion compared to 3,988 billion as at 31 December 202).
The group has revised upwards the 2022 ebitda guidance while that on investments and net financial debt was instead confirmed. In particular, for the entire current year, Acea expects a growth in EBITDA of between 4 and 6 per cent compared to 2021 (previous guidance +2%/+4%); investments substantially in line with 2021 and net financial debt between 4,2 and 4,3 billion euros.
“The results recorded in the first six months of the year show growth compared to the same period of 2021. This performance – commented Giuseppe Gola, CEO of Acea – concerned all our business areas and was achieved despite a difficult context. In the first half of the year, our development plan in renewables continued with the start-up of a plant in Basilicata with a power of 20 MW and in Sardinia with the authorization for the construction of an 85 MW plant, one of the largest in Italy. We have also acquired an infrastructure for waste treatment in Abruzzo, further consolidating our presence in the circular economy sector. For the second half of 2022, albeit in a still complex scenario, we expect results that allow us to revise upwards the guidance at Ebitda level for the current year', concluded the manager.
