EDP Renewables (Euronext: EDPR), a global leader in the renewable energy sector and one of the largest wind energy producers in the world, announced today its results for the first nine months of 2020.
As of September 29, the company operates a portfolio totalling 11.5 GW, of which 11 GW are fully consolidated and 560 MW equity consolidated. In the 9M20 period, EDPR built 875 MW, including the 50% participation in a 278 MW US solar portfolio. During the period, pursuing its Sell?down strategy, EDPR successfully sold its full stake in the 137 MW Babilonia wind farm and decommissioned 18 MW in Spain for repowering. All in all, as of Sep?20, EDPR YoY consolidated portfolio net variation was of +712 MW.
By the end of the third quarter, the company had 2.2 GW of new capacity under construction. By technology, this capacity is comprised of 1,693 MW generated from onshore wind farms, 200 MW from solar PV and 269 MW from equity stakes in offshore projects.
Between January and September, EDPR produced 20.4 TWh of clean electricity (-7% YoY), averting the release of 13 mt of CO2 emissions. The YoY trend is in line with a lower installed capacity following the execution of EDPR’s Sell?down strategy: 997 MW of European assets (-1.2TWh YoY) in the third quarter of 2019; and 137 MW in Brazil (-500 GWh YoY) in the first quarter of 2020.
EDPR’s strategy is well on track with 86% of the 7 GW capacity 19-22 target build-out completed (+0.7 GW YTD) and has created its wind offshore JV, Ocean Winds, with 5.4GW gross capacity of projects under different stages of development. Upon successfully closing the acquisition of Viesgo’s Spanish 0.5GW wind portfolio, EDPR will have 6.5 GW of secured projects backlog as of Sep-20.
Rui Teixeira, interim CEO of EDP Renováveis stated: From a business standpoint, at EDPR we are very pleased with the progress made in the year so far. The execution of our plan is well underway, successfully building a portfolio of long term PPAs that support more than 86% of our 2022 targets, creating value and raising capital through the asset sell-down strategy and pursuing excellence in the operation of our windfarms and solar plants.
Commenting on the effects of the pandemic on the business, Teixeira said: Throughout the Covid-19 crisis EDPR is absolutely focused on the safety of our people, ensuring it meets its power generation obligations with customers and will continue to demonstrate that has built a solid and sustainable growth business model that will support both the energy transition and the economic recovery across its different markets.
Financial results
EDPR posted total revenues of €1,259 million in the first nine months of 2020, where impact from capacity MW (-€73m YoY; including Sell-down transactions), wind resource (-€58m YoY), forex translation and others (-€4m YoY), were not offset by higher selling prices (+€29m YoY ex -Sell-downs).
Other operating income amounted to €259m (-€17m versus 9M19), with YoY performance reflecting the gains (+€200m) related to offshore transactions, namely the stakes already sold to the Offshore JV with Engie (as of Sep-20, all EDPR assets transferred pursuant to the agreement signed in Jan-20).
EBITDA totalled €1,074m (-12% YoY) and EBIT €643m (vs €786m in 9M19) with Sell-down transactions having a positive impact of -€17m in D&A partially compensated by new capacity. Net financial expenses decreased to €217m (-€63m vs 9M19) with YoY comparison impacted by lower debt and lower avg. cost of debt in the period (3.5% vs 4.0% in the 9M19).
Net Profit stood at €319m (-7% YoY) mainly driven by lower EBITDA. Non-controlling interests in the period totalled €92m, dropping by €21m YoY as a result of assets sold.
As of September 2020, net debt totalled €3,240m (+€437m vs Dec-19) reflecting, on the one hand, the cash generated by the assets, and on the other hand, investments in the period and forex translation. Institutional Partnership Liabilities totalled €1,238m (-€49m vs Dec-19), with profits earned from the projects and tax equity partners along with new institutional tax equity financing in the period (flat vs Dec-19 in USD).
