Iberdrola increased its profits by 86% as of March
Iberdrola made a net profit of €2,760 million in the first quarter of the year, representing an increase of 85.8% compared to €1,485 million in the same period in 2023, driven by a million dollar capital gain recorded from the sale of assets in Mexico, the company said.
In particular, the sale of assets in Mexico, which closed on 26 February, made an extraordinary contribution to net profit of €1.165 million, and had a positive impact of €238 million in 2023, driven by the recovery of the UK deficit. trading business. Excluding these recurring items, the utility’s net income rose 28%.
In turn, the gross operating result (Ebitda) at the end of March amounted to 5.857 million euros, which is 44.1% more than in the same period last year. Excluding capital gains in Mexico and the recovery of the tariff deficit in the United Kingdom, Ebitda will rise by 10% to €4,140 million, driven by improved margins and the record achieved in renewable energy production over the past 10 years in Iberia.
The group’s turnover between January and March reached 12,678.5 million euros, representing a drop of 18% compared to the first quarter of 2023.
Increase your investment by 36%
Utilities’ performance was supported by gross investment, which reached €2.382 million in the quarter, up 36%, with the network business growing by 27% to €1.213 million, mainly driven by new “tariff scenarios” in the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil allocate investments 60% for distribution and 40% for transmission.
In turn, investment in the renewable energy business grew by more than 50% to €994 million, of which €366 million was allocated to offshore wind (+70%).
During the year, the company will continue to advance its offshore wind strategy with the commissioning of three projects: Saint-Brieuc (500 MW, France); Vineyard Wind 1 (800 MW, USA) and Baltic Eagle (475 MW, Germany). In addition, the company will receive more resources from manageable renewable energy sources.
The energy company ended the first quarter with 42,300 MW of installed renewable energy capacity worldwide. Iberdrola produces 100% emission-free energy in the UK, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. In the first quarter, emissions-free production in Spain reached 92% of the total.
Of the total investment, 35% was intended for the US, 20% for the UK, another 20% for Spain, 15% for Latin America and the remaining 10% for continental Europe and Australia.
The energy company’s president, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, stressed that these results “demonstrate the reliability of Iberdrola’s model and the positive impact of the investments included in the 2024-2026 plan.”
“The strong performance of our business in the first quarter, coupled with our existing investment growth, also allows us to improve our forecasts for the full year 2024,” he said.
Iberdrola thus once again raises its profit estimate for the year as a whole, achieving high single-digit net profit growth (excluding capital gains from asset rotation), thanks to a strong operating performance, investment contribution of -12 billion euros. for this year – and the contribution of the new regulatory framework to network business in the US, UK and Brazil.
The energy company, which already made a historic profit of 4.803 million euros in 2023, is therefore targeting a new record profit of more than 5 billion euros in 2024.
Iberdrola also recorded a significant improvement in cash generation between January and March, with cash inflows of around €5.4 billion in the first quarter from the Mexico deal.
Flow from operations (FFO) reported by the company increased by 5% to €3.145 million, and by 14% when excluding the impact of the UK tariffs deficit recorded in the first quarter of 2023.
Liquidity 22.4 billion.
In addition, it has liquidity of €22.4 billion, which will allow it to cover 26 months of financing needs without resorting to the market.
Meanwhile, Iberdrola’s adjusted net financial debt at the end of March stands at €44.998 million, down 5.9% compared to December 2023 thanks to proceeds from the sale to Mexico.
On the other hand, Iberdrola will hold a general meeting of shareholders in Bilbao on May 17, at which it will submit for approval the payment of an additional dividend of 0.348 euros per share in July, which will be added to the 0.202 euros distributed in January.
The total dividend accrued for the 2023 financial year will increase by 10.8% compared to the dividend paid for the 2022 results, reaching €0.55 per share. To this amount will be added 0.005 euros per share if the quorum for the creation of the board reaches 70%.