As announced on Monday, Endesa has updated its dividend policy for the period 2024-2026 with the aim of facing the impact of 530 million euros that the International Arbitration Court has forced it to pay Qatar Energy for the adjustment of gas prices in contracts signed before the crisis. As explained on Wednesday by the company's CEO, José Bogas, Endesa is still deliberating on whether or not it will appeal this decision.
This is confirmed this Thursday by the strategic plan that the Spanish energy company has published for the period 2023-2026.
Regarding dividends, those for 2023 do not suffer any modification and for the entire period it is expected to maintain 70% of the pay out for the three-year period. Specifically, Endesa shareholders will receive one euro per share for 2023, with an interim payment of 0.50 euros approved to be paid in January.
The cut will be applied in 2024, the year in which the remuneration to shareholders was expected to be 1.2 euros. Now, the company guarantees a floor of 1 euro, although it aims to reach 1.1 euros, and in 2026 it hopes to reach 1.5 euros per title.
The group highlighted that the objective of rewarding its shareholders with 1.5 euros gross in 2026 would mean a dividend yield of 8%.
Endesa has set its goal in this plan to achieve a gross profit (ebitda) of between 5,600 and 5,900 million euros in 2026 and a net ordinary profit of 2,200-2,300 million. For the net financial debt, it sets about 8,000-9,000 million.
In a context of growing financial costs and inflation, the energy company will maintain a continuous plan with respect to the previous one, with a gross investment for the period 2024-206 that will stand at 8.9 billion euros.
Specifically, distribution networks and renewable generation will be the two pillars of clean electrification, which remain key axes for the company's growth.
Thus, of this investment effort of the group in the period, 2,800 million gross euros will be destined for distribution networks, 200 million more than in the previous plan, pending greater visibility on the regulatory review.
In this sense, José Bogas has appealed to the Government to deploy the necessary conditions that allow energy companies to make these investments. "All regulators have declared that the network will be one of the drivers of the energy transition. If you see the data, there is no doubt that investment needs to be doubled. For that, companies need cash and the measures now in force such as the cap on gas or the extraordinary tax are against us. The regulator knows that and is aware that it has to encourage these investments," he assured.
This means not extending the extraordinary tax that taxes the income of energy companies at 1.5%, and eliminating the gas cap that penalizes sales above 67 euros, but also that the regulator, that is, the National Commission of Markets and Competition, design a new framework in which remuneration for networks is consistent with this need. Points, all of them, that Bogas is convinced will be made.
Renewables, meanwhile, will be the most important investment item with 4.3 billion euros, the same figure as in the previous plan, with a greater weight of wind power to reach 13,900 megawatts (MW) of renewable capacity by the end of 2026 and with Andorra, Pego and the 800 MW wind power in Galicia as star projects; and 900 million for the customer area to reach 7.5 million in the free market in the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the three-year period, while the electrification of all energy uses guides the commercial strategy.
In addition, Endesa maintains its objective of full decarbonization in 2040, with the exit of coal in the island business as an intermediate milestone in 2027. All this after the closure this year of the last coal plant on the Peninsula, As Pontes . 93% of the electricity company's peninsular production will be emissions-free in 2026, up from 79% at the end of this year.
