Wind power and biomethane will be Naturgy's main investment objectives in the next three years, according to the review of the strategic plan whose details were released yesterday by the company's board of directors on the occasion of the presentation of results for the first half of 2023.
As explained by the president and CEO, Francisco Reynés, Naturgy's new strategic plan has raised its net profit target for 2025 to 1,800 million, and the result before taxes, to 5,100 million.
All this, in the midst of an investment plan of 10,000 million euros in the three-year period 2023-2025 that will coexist with a financial discipline that, at a minimum, must be able to maintain a BBB rating and a profit distribution of 85%, that is, 1.40 euros per share, compared to the 1.20 that it has been paying in recent years.
“What the shareholders take will be half of what is invested, which means consolidating an industrial model of transformation. This is the largest annual investment in the entire history of the company and doubles the investment average of the last 20 years”, the manager pointed out yesterday in a meeting with the press.
In it, he also specified that "not everything goes in this investment policy", which will be chaired by operations with "industrial and financial sense". For Naturgy, these criteria are now fulfilled much more by wind energy than by photovoltaic solar energy; For this reason, its energy mix will be focused mainly on the former, to which will also be added a strong investment in the generation of renewable gases such as biomethane.
“We are going to lead the investment in biomethane in Spain in order to obtain a quantity of ecological fuel with which to replace traditional gas in a relevant quantity”, Reynés promised. “It won't be profitable for two or three years, but it's the only way to move forward in this business. We are convinced that this will be an alternative, ”he acknowledged.
Beyond these industrial plans, the manager was elusive when it came to addressing some of the most publicized issues that have affected the company in the last month, such as his own role in the company after the frustrated attempt to hire a CEO as requested by the investment funds of its shareholders. "This management team has the support of the entire board of directors," he limited himself to saying.
Nor did it go much further regarding the possible reactivation of the Geminis project, presented in March 2022 and paralyzed after the outbreak of the war, by which the company divided its private and regulated businesses into two companies.
“It is a project that is an intrinsic part of the group because it is already the way to group our current businesses. They are not yet two independent companies because the conditions have not been met. The objective has always responded to a logic of industrial strategy and it makes perfect sense. But don't ask me about the timing because we don't know it, ”he pointed out.
Reynés took advantage of this meeting to review the results for the first half that Naturgy presented yesterday, in which it is reflected that the fall in natural gas prices has impacted the business less than expected and the company has beaten analyst forecasts by earning 1,045 million euros, almost 88% more than the previous year with a gross operating result (ebitda) of 2,849 million euros, an increase of 39.2%. At the same time, it decreased by 11%. its debt, up to 10,752 million euros.
