Wind power and biomethane will be Natugy's main investment targets over the next three years, according to the review of the strategic plan whose details were announced 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 amid an investment plan of 10,000 million euros during the three-year period 2023-2025 that will coexist with a financial discipline that, at the very least, must be able to maintain a BBB rating and a profit distribution of 85%, that is, 1.4 euros per share, compared to the 1.2 it has paid in recent years.
"What the shareholders take away will be half of what is invested, which entails consolidating an industrial model of transformation. This is the largest annual investment in the entire history of the company and doubles the average investment of the last 20 years", said the manager yesterday in a meeting with the press.
He also pointed out that "not everything is worth it, in this investment policy" which will be presided over by operations with "industrial and financial sense". For Naturgy, these criteria are now met much more by wind energy than solar photovoltaics, which is why its energy mix will be mainly focused on the former, to which will also be added a strong investment in the generation of renewable gases such as biomethane. "We will lead the investment in biomethane in Spain to be able to obtain an amount of ecological fuel with which we will replace traditional gas in a significant amount", Reynés promised. "It won't make a profit 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 shy when it came to addressing some of the more media-related issues that have affected the company in the last month, such as his own role in the company after the failed 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 he say much about the possible reactivation of the Géminis project, presented in March 2022 and paralyzed after the outbreak of war, with which the company split 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 makes perfect sense. But don't ask me about the timing because we don't know", he pointed out.
Reynés took advantage of this meeting to review the results for the first half of the year that Naturgy presented yesterday, in which it is reflected that the drop in natural gas prices has impacted the business less than expected and the company has beaten analysts' forecasts by earning 1,045 million euros, almost 88% more than the previous year, with a gross operating profit (ebitda) of 2,849 million euros, with an increase of 39.2%.
At the same time, it reduced its debt by 11%, to 10,752 million euros.
