German energy group E.ON has released its 2016 results, posting a 11% decrease in its sales to €38.2bn and a 15% drop in its adjusted EBITDA at €4.9bn. The net loss more than doubled to €16bn (€6.4bn in 2015) owing to the impact of €11bn of impairment charges related to Uniper spinoff, of €3.6bn in currency losses (Uniper) and to the agreement with the German federal government (€10bn to be paid into a state-run nuclear energy fund in mid-2017). The net loss attributable to shareholders rose by 21% to €8.45bn
The group succeeded in reducing its net debt by 5% to €26.3bn and plans to cut it to about €20bn in the medium term. As announced, E.ON wants to fund the nuclear risk surcharge of roughly €2bn with capital measures, i.e. through a capital increase of up to 10% and the issuance of hybrid bonds, or through the sale of Uniper stock, the transfer of the company’s stake in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline into a pension fund, the optimization of nuclear decommissioning costs, the sale of non-strategic businesses, and a scrip dividend. These measures could reduce E.ON’s debt by €5bn.
As planned in its new strategy, the group has decided to focus on energy networks, customer solutions, and renewable energies. At the end of 2016, E.ON had interests in 4,176 MW of power assets (4,574 MW attributable), a 5% increase compared to 2015. The group had 471 MW of wind capacity in Germany, plus 4,103 MW outside Germany (mainly wind). The group generated 11.6 TWh (8.2 TWh from onshore wind and solar and 3.4 TWh from offshore wind and other renewables) and sold 13.7 TWh (+6.2%).
Where energy networks are concerned, E.ON had about 5.8 million connection points for power and about 0.9 million for gas; it operated around 350,000 km of electricity lines and 58,000 km of gas pipelines. In Sweden, the group operated 136,400 km of power lines, supplying one million connection points, and 2,100 km of gas pipelines. In Central Europe and Turkey, E.ON had around 4.7 million connection points for power and the roughly 1.3 million for gas. E.ON sold 28.3 TWh of power to end customers (-30%) and 18 TWh on the wholesale market (5.7 TWh in 2015) in Germany, 36.3 TWh to end customers (+12%) and 1.1 TWh on the wholesale market (+37%) in the United Kingdom, and 59.3 TWh on other markets. Gas sales to end customers fell by 42% in Germany to 28.9 TWh while wholesale sales soared tenfold to 12 TWh. Gas sales in the United Kingdom (end-customers sales only) slightly decreased to 48.4 TWh (-5.8%), while sales on other markets fell by 15% to 57.2 TWh.
Total investments dipped by 2% to €3,169m, including €1,419m in energy networks (-7%) and €1,070m in renewables (+6%).
Earlier in March 2017, Uniper, E.ON's subsidiary for conventional power generation and global energy trading, released its 2016 results, posting a 27% fall in its sales to €67.3bn (-9.6% for power generation and -27% for global commodities trading). Uniper's attributable capacity declined by 7.5% in 2016 to 36.9 GW, due to the sale of thermal power assets in Belgium and the decommissioning of two power plants in Germany and the Netherlands. Uniper generated nearly 139 TWh in 2016 (+1.2%) and purchased 545 TWh on the wholesale markets. Sales dipped by 3.5% to 691 TWh, including 614 TWh on the wholesale markets (-10%) and 77 TWh to business customers and resellers (+116%). The group also sold 1,725 TWh of gas in 2016 (-1%), sourced from other providers in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Russia (including 407 TWh sourced trough long-term contracts).