Endesa continues to examine possibilities to sell part of the gas business before the end of the year, as it announced in November in the roadmap for 2023. This was confirmed yesterday by the company’s CEO, José Bogas, during the conference with analysts to present the results of the first half of 2023.
“We continue with the idea of ??selling part of our gas business, despite the fact that market conditions have changed a lot since we decided on this operation. At that time we were thinking of a gas price of close to 100 euros/MWh, and now we don’t foresee more than 30”, assured José Bogas. The idea, as pointed out by Endesa’s financial director, Marco Palermo, focuses on finding a buyer for two of the six million cubic meters (bcm) that Endesa has in Spain. Given the current market context, which Palermo described as “not exciting”, the company trusts that a possible increase in gas prices for the fourth quarter of the year can bring closer positions with those interested in its assets.
The sale of these assets was in doubt since the Government of Giorgia Meloni in Italy, as the owner of Enel, the main shareholder of Endesa, replaced at the head of Endesa Francesco Starace (a strong supporter of the renewable transition and proposed the sale of the gas business of Endesa and Enel) by Flavio Cattaneo, a traditional executive in the gas business. An energy that defends in line with the positions of the extreme right in power in Italy.
Endesa continues with investments in the renewable transition, although Enel announced yesterday the sale of 50% of the renewable business in Greece to the Macquarie fund for 345 million.
In Spain, Bogas yesterday celebrated the ambition of the objectives of the Government’s new National Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec), but warned of “the technical difficulties of integrating all this new capacity”. “One thing is what we want and another thing is what we can”, warned the director, while acknowledging that there is still time to adjust the objectives to the plan.
At the moment, what Endesa is maintaining are the goals for the end of the year, despite the fact that the profit for the first semester was 879 million euros, 4% less than the previous year, when the sale of the business materialized of mobility Without this extraordinary result, profit would have grown by 19.8%. The gross operating result reached 2,476 million, 13.2% more, with revenues of 13,121 million euros, 11.6% lower. The financial indicator that José Bogas highlighted the most was that of the liquidity generation that Endesa achieved in the period: 1,615 million, compared to the negative 169 million of the previous year. Endesa’s debt was also reduced by 2.5%, up to 10,297 million.