45% jump in PPC’s EBITDA in the 9th month, switched to pre-tax profitability

Increased operating profitability for nine months 2023, due to the reduction of operating expenses, and mainly expenses for energy purchases, natural gas and CO2 emissions, PPC announced. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) on a recurring basis stood at €936.8 millionincreased by €292.6 million (45.4%) in relation to its corresponding period 2022.

In particular for the third quarter of 2023, the EBITDA on a recurring basis formed in €347.1 million against €215 million. the corresponding quarter of 2022.

The pre-tax results were adjusted to profits €391.2 million. against damages €151.1 million in the nine months of 2022, as the height gain is also included in them €141.6 million. from the sale of the former lignite areas to the Greek State, which was recorded in the results of the second quarter of 2023.

The results after taxes were set in profit €267.5 million in the nine months of 2023, against losses €169.8 million in the nine months of 2022. Commenting on the financial results, the President and CEO of PPC S.A. K. George Stassis stated:

“Our performance for the nine months of 2023 was strong despite challenges from the external environment, with geopolitical tensions following the energy crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, thus highlighting the resilience of our business model. We were able to accelerate our investments in strategic areas such as Renewables and grids, while maintaining our net debt to EBITDA ratio within our targets, liquidity at a high level, while continuing to support our customers by providing competitive invoices. For the full year, we are confident that we will achieve our recurring EBITDA target of approximately €1.2 billion.

In Renewables, we now have 670 MW of capacity in Greece and are building additional projects with a total capacity of 1.3 GW. At the same time, we are expanding our presence in countries in our region – according to our Business Plan – such as Romania, after the completion of the acquisition of Enel’s activities in the country. This is a transaction that is a milestone for PPC in order to become the leading clean energy company in Southeast Europe.

In Greece, the agreement to acquire Kotsovolos accelerates PPC’s transition to an integrated provider of products and services both digitally and physically, based on the customer-centricity pillar of our strategy. We are excited about the ongoing transformation of PPC and will present our capitalized strategy as well as our vision for the new PPC at Capital MarketsDay in late January in London.”

Functional sizes

Regarding the domestic demand for electricity, in the third quarter of 2023 an increase of 8.7% in relation to the third quarter of 2022, reversing the picture presented in the previous quarters. At the nine-month level, domestic demand decreased by 2.6% while total demand, i.e. including electricity for exports, registered a decrease 3.5% due to the decrease in exports.

Her average share PPC in the supply market in the country as a whole decreased to 57.5% the nine months 2023 from 63% the corresponding period of 2022. In particular, the average market share in the Interconnected System decreased to 54.1% in September 2023 (from 62% in September 2022), while the average share per trend was 44% (from 81.9%) in High Voltage, 34% (from 37.5%) in the Middle Voltage and 65.1% (from 66.6%) in Low Voltage.

In electricity production, the average share of PPC decreased to 38.2% the nine months 2023 from 44.9% in the first nine months of 2022, mainly due to lower production from natural gas plants.

PPC Group Income & Operating Expenses Analysis

Income

Turnover decreased in the nine months of 2023 by €3,039.2 million. the 35.5% due to reduced tariffs as a result of the drop in prices in the wholesale market, as well as due to the decrease in the volume of electricity sales as a result of the drop in domestic demand and the decrease in PPC’s market share in the supply of electricity.

Operating costs

Operating expenses before depreciation in the first half of 2023 decreased by 42.1% (€4,586.8 million vs. €7,918.5 million), mainly as a result of the aforementioned reduction in expenses for the purchase of natural gas, energy and CO2 emission rights.

Energy Mix Expenditures

Spending on liquid fuels, natural gas, CO2, third-party lignite and electricity purchases decreased by €3,273.5 million (50.3%) compared to the nine months of 2022.

Payroll Expenses

The payroll expense without the one-off effects was formed at €541 million the nine months 2023 from €532.3 million., with the salaried regular staff being made up of 12,970 employees (from 12,678 employees at the end of the nine months of 2022).

Predictions

Provisions for bad customer receivables were made at €143.9 million in the nine months of 2023 vs €186.1 million in the first nine months of 2022.

One-off effects on EBITDA

The figures for the nine months of 2023 have been adjusted for the provision for personal compensation €21.3 million

The EBITDA of the nine months of 2022 was negatively affected by the amount of the extraordinary levy imposed on electricity producers for the period October 2021 – June 2022 and recorded in the third quarter of the year and which for PPC was determined at €276 million and after final liquidation in Q4 2022, reduced to €245.3 million

Investments

Total investments in the first nine months of 2023 amounted to €774.8 million against €427m in the nine months of 2022. Much of the increase is due to increased investments in projects for the Distribution Network, APE as well as the new 840MW Natural Gas plant in Alexandroupoli.

Net Debt

The net debt on 30.09.2023 was €2,187.7 millionincreased by €799.6 million in relation to 31.12.2022 (€1,388.1 million), due to the impact from the negative working capital which was basically affected by the payment for CO2 emission rights for the compliance of the year 2022, which is made every year until the end of March next year.