Covid-19 took 100 million from EDP. “We had a strong impact,” acknowledges Stilwell d’Andrade
EDP's interim CEO spoke this Friday at a conference call with analysts about the effect of the virus on the company. He assured, however, that guidance and shareholder remuneration are not at risk.
The pandemic had a direct impact of 100 million euros on EDP’s accounts. The figure was put forward this Friday by interim CEO Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade in a conference call with analysts after the electric company reported results. In the first half of the year, the company made a profit of 315 million euros, down 22% on the same period last year.
“We had a strong impact from Covid-19. They all did,” he said, pointing to this especially in Brazil (notably with the 20 percent devaluation of the Real against the euro, which generated a loss of 57 million) and in the commercial business in the Iberian Peninsula. “It had a direct impact of 0.1 billion euros on EBITDA,” he continued.
The group’s EBITDA fell 3% to 1,872 million euros. The pandemic also caused delays in construction but did not prevent the investment plan from being implemented. OPEX stood at 266 million euros, in line with forecasts.
With some factors compensating for the pandemic, the CEO says he already sees positive signs.
“Although 2020 has been a difficult year, we are still on track,” he said. The company’s projection is for a profit of between 850 million and 900 million euros this year, compared to 854 million in 2019. “We continue to see a very positive outlook for EDP’s ability to lead the energy transition and create shareholder value.”
EDP decided not to suspend shareholder remuneration despite the pandemic (within the group, only EDP Brasil did so) and paid 0.19 euros per share as planned. This figure is the minimum the company has undertaken to pay shareholders, at least until 2022. And Stilwell says the management is “comfortable” with this idea.
In part, the reason for the optimism is “better than expected results” in asset turnover. “What we have seen in the last 18 months allows us to be more optimistic than in the strategic plan,” he says. Of the target set by the company, 55% of the 4 billion euro target has already been met by 2022. The manager says he continues to “see great appetite from institutional investors for green assets.”
