Naturgy shoots up its profit by 88% in the first semester, up to 1,045 million

MADRID, 24 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Naturgy obtained a net profit of 1,045 million euros in the first half of the year, which represents an increase of 87.6% compared to the same period last year, the company informed the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

The energy company chaired by Francisco Reynés highlighted that this result was supported by "the good performance of the international liberalized activities, in particular, by the Energy Management and Marketing activities, and the positive evolution of the financial result, which reflects the strong deleveraging achieved in the period".

The group's gross operating profit (Ebitda) stood at 2,849 million euros at the end of June, with an increase of 39.2% compared to the first half of 2022.

Likewise, Naturgy announced that on August 7 an interim dividend of 2023 results of 0.50 euros per share. The board of directors has established the annual dividend floor for the period 2023-2025 at 1.40 euros per share, compared to 1.20 euros per share previously, conditional on maintaining a 'BBB' rating per S

In general, international liberalized energy activities continued to benefit from the energy scenario of the last twelve months, while regulated activities experienced a slight increase compared to the first half of 2022.

Meanwhile, the Networks businesses registered an Ebitda of 1,261 million euros in the first six months of 2023, with an increase of 5.3%. Thus, the Networks businesses contributed 43% to the Group's Ebitda in the first half of 2023

The activity of Networks in Spain was affected mainly by the lower remuneration and demand, especially in gas, as a consequence of the mild temperatures and the lower industrial demand; while the Networks business in Latin America mainly benefited from rate updates that reflected inflation in prior periods.

For their part, the liberalized activities or Markets businesses were responsible for most of the performance of energy compared to the first half of 2022, registering an aggregate Ebitda of 1,677 million euros, with a growth of 84.1% compared to the first half of 2022, where Energy Management and Marketing activities contributed most of this growth in the period. In this way, the Markets businesses contributed 57% to the company's Ebitda in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, Naturgy reduced its net debt position from 12,070 million euros at the end of 2022 to 10,752 million euros at the end of June. Thus, the net debt over Ebitda decreased from 2.4 times at the end of last year to 1.9 times in the first half of 2023.

In this way, the energy company maintains a liquidity situation with 10,108 million euros in available cash and equivalents and undrawn credit lines at the end of the first half of 2023.

With regard to investments in these first six months of 2023, they stood at 839 million euros, with an increase of 16.4% compared to the same period of the previous year.

((WILL BE EXTENSION))