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ENERGY

Germany’s E.ON pulls the plug on Italy: report

Germany's biggest power supplier E.ON has decided to pull the plug on its Italian operations and is looking for a potential buyer, the business daily Handelsblatt reported on Thursday.

Published: 28 November 2013 13:58 CET
Germany's E.ON pulls the plug on Italy: report
Germany's E.ON is reportedly looking for a buyer for its Italian operations. Photo: HolgerEllgaard/Wikicommons

The plans were still at an early stage, but the decision has been taken, the newspaper reported, quoting company sources.

Industry sources put the potential sale price at more than €2.0 billion, the paper added.

A spokesman for E.ON told AFP that "there have long been rumours concerning a possible sale of our Italian activities.

"We're constantly examining the strategic options for optimising our portfolio and this also includes the activities in Italy," he said.

In the past, E.ON invested €11.5 billion in establishing footprints in Spain, France and Italy as part of its ambitions to become one of Europe's biggest players.

But six years after moving into Italy, the profits EON makes there have fallen short of target and the German group is no longer looking to expand in southern Europe, Handelsblatt said.

According to E.ON's website, E.ON Italia has capacity of just over 6.0 gigawatts and is one of the top five in Italy with nearly 1.0 million customers.

Handelsblatt the unit employs a workforce of more than 1,000.

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BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

Published: 16 February 2024 10:45 CET
France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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