Enefit Green unaudited financial results for Q4 and 12 months 2022

In Q4 2022, Enefit Green group total revenues increased by 20% y-o-y to €82.8m. EBITDA was down by 8% y-o-y at €45.8m. During the quarter, the group earned net profit of €35.4m, which is 10% lower than in fourth quarter of 2021.

For the full year 2022, Enefit Green group total revenues increased by 40% y-o-y to €257.0m and EBITDA was up by 27% y-o-y at €154.8m, net profit increased to €110.2m or by 38% compared to the year before. Earnings per share (based on post-IPO number of shares) for the full year was €0.42 (2021: €0.30).

Aavo Kärmas, Chairman of the Management Board of Enefit Green comments:

"2022 confirmed that in addition to climate goals, renewable energy is also important due to energy security and electricity prices. Russia's aggression in Ukraine led the whole of Europe to seek solutions to volatile energy prices and security of supply risks. The greatest impact solution to the energy crisis is to increase the production of renewable energy.

Last year, Enefit Green made a total of half a billion euros of investment decisions to bring electricity to the market at an affordable price, three of which were for the construction of wind farms and three for the construction of solar farms. Among them, we started the construction of the 255-megawatt Sopi-Tootsi wind farm in Estonia and the construction of the first 80-megawatt stage of the three-stage Kelme project in Lithuania. We are currently building a total of ten new wind and solar farms with a total capacity of 596 megawatts. This means that the production capacity under construction is larger than that of Enefit Green's current production assets.

Enefit Green produced 1.1 terawatt-hours of electricity and 566 gigawatt-hours of thermal energy in 2022. The output was lower than a year earlier in both cases, mainly due to wind speed and lower availabilities. Despite the somewhat smaller volume of production, the financial results improved.

Last year, we firmly moved forward on the course of our strategy to increase production capacity fourfold by the end of 2026. We are working to reach investment decisions for new onshore wind and solar farms with our team this year in the total volume of up to 480 megawatts. We are supported on this journey by nearly 60,000 investors, whose trust gives us confidence to continue investing in green energy. The Management Board of Enefit Green, in coordination with the Supervisory Board, proposes to pay the shareholders 55.0 million euros or 0.208 euros per share in the form of dividends.”

Webinar to present the results of 2022

Tomorrow, March 1, 2023 at 12.10 EET Enefit Green will host a webinar in English to present and discuss its 2022 results. To participate, please follow this link (if asked, please use event id EGR0103).

Significant events during 2022

• Three investment decisions to build a new wind farm – total capacity of 356 MW
• Three investment decisions to build a new solar farm – total capacity of 41 MW
• Total value of investment decisions made in 2022 – ca €500m
• 4.9 TWh of new PPA sales
• Adopting of the Sustainability Principles of Enefit Green
  
  

Key figures

Total revenues

The group's electricity production in 2022 was 1,118 GWh (-75 GWh compared to 2021). The implied captured electricity price of the group was 149 €/MWh in the reporting period (107 €/MWh in the reference period).

Total revenues grew by €73.3m, the figure reflecting growth in sales revenue by €80.3m as well as a decrease in renewable energy support and other income by €7.0 million. Electricity sales revenue contributed €67.2m to the €80.3m growth in sales revenue. The increase in electricity sales revenue was mainly driven by a rise in electricity prices in the Estonia price area and to a lesser extent by rising electricity prices in the Latvia and Lithuania price areas of the Nord Pool power exchange (NP). The average market price in the NP Estonia price area was 192.0 €/MWh (2021: 86.5 €/MWh). The implied captured electricity price of the group’s Estonian production units was 182.2 €/MWh (2021: 122.8 €/MWh). The average implied captured electricity prices of the group’s Latvian and Lithuanian production units were 208.7 €/MWh (2021: 100.6 €/MWh) and 86.9 €/MWh (2021: 78.9 €/MWh), respectively. As an important factor, in addition to the previous effects arising from various support schemes, the average implied captured electricity prices are from Q4 2022 onwards also influenced by electricity purchase transactions related to balancing the PPA portfolio starting from the fourth quarter of 2022.

The effect of high electricity prices was counterbalanced by a lower electricity production volume in Estonia, which lowered sales revenue by €7.3m. Production volume decreased due to less favourable wind conditions and repair works lasting for five weeks at the Iru power plant which required the facility to be offline. Lower availability also reduced the quantity of electricity produced in Lithuania, which lowered sales revenue by €1.5m year on year.

Pellet sales revenue supported total revenue growth with a strong €7.7m. Pellet sales volume was 149k tonnes compared with 171k tonnes in 2021. While sales volume was smaller, the average sales price grew by 55%, rising to 203 €/t.

Heat production decreased by 9% compared with 2021 but the price of heat sold grew by 14%.

The growth in total revenues was also supported by rapidly expanding turnkey solar services whose sales revenue grew by €5.9m year on year. Due to its low profit margin, we decided to exit this business in the middle 2022 and sold related inventories.

Expenses, EBITDA and segmental reporting

Expenses on raw materials, consumables and services grew by €42m, i.e. 95%. The biggest change was in electricity costs, which grew by €24.5m due to higher electricity prices which increased the costs on balancing energy and due to extraordinarily low production outcome in Q4 2022 which drove electricity purchases to fulfil PPAs. Expenses on technological fuel grew by €10.8m due to significantly higher wood chip and waste wood prices.

The group’s payroll expenses grew by €2.4m, i.e. 36% compared with 2021 due to an increase in the average number of full-time employees from 165 to 178 as well as growth in existing employees’ payroll expenses. New people were mostly hired to the development team to support the group’s growth plan in all its core markets.

Other operating expenses grew by €2.6m. Several cost items increased, including consulting expenses by €0.8m, IT expenses by €0.1m, business travel expenses by €0.2m and land-related expenses by €0.7m. Land-related expenses have increased due to higher electricity prices.

The growth in Group EBITDA was mainly driven by the increase in electricity prices (+€48.1m, which also includes the impact of significantly higher cost of electricity purchases), as well as increased pellet sales revenue (+€7.7m) and inventory changes (+€7.0m). Among negative contributors to EBITDA, the increase of variable costs was the most important one (minus €20.5m) due to higher biomass prices and higher solar service expenses. Another important negative contributor (minus €8.7m) was lower volume of electricity production. The growth in development and labour costs was the driver behind fixed costs, which also had a negative impact on EBITDA (minus €5.1m).

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment (D&A)

D&A expense remained stable compared with a year earlier. Although the volume of investments made in 2022 extended to €194.6m, this did not affect D&A expense because investments were mostly made in wind and solar farm development projects which are still in the construction phase.

Net profit

The group’s net profit grew by €30.5m, rising to €110.2m. The key factor behind the vigorous growth was high market prices of electricity.

Capital Expenditure

The group’s capital expenditures grew by €118.1m year on year, rising to €194.6m in 2022. Growth resulted from development investments, which extended to €188.1m. Out of the total, €111.4m was invested in the construction of three wind farms: €62.5m in the Akmene wind farm, €30.7m in the Šilale II wind farm and €18.3m in the Tolpanvaara wind farm. In addition, Enefit Green acquired the Tootsi wind farm development from Eesti Energia for €26.9m. The largest expenditures on solar developments were investments of €10.0m made in the development of the Vändra solar farm and additionally the group acquired Enefit Green Solar OÜ for €6.6m. Base investments (expenditure on the improvement and maintenance of existing assets) amounted to €6.5m compared with €4.3m in 2021. 2022 base investments were mainly made in the Estonian wind farms (€2.3m) and the Iru cogeneration plant (€1.8 m).

Financing

In 2022, we focused on optimising our capital structure by drawing down and refinancing previously secured loans as well as signing and preparing new loan agreements to finance our ongoing wind and solar energy investment programme.

The amortised cost of the group’s interest-bearing liabilities at 31 December 2022 was €279.6m (31 December 2021: €123.5m). The figure comprises bank loans and finance lease liabilities of €275.0m and €4.6m, respectively.

The average interest rate of bank loans (considering also concluded interest rate swaps) drawn down at 31 December 2022 was 2.60% (31 December 2021: 1.44%). The base interest rates at the end of 2022 were significantly higher than a year earlier. During the year, 3-month Euribor increased by 2.70 percentage points, rising to 2.13%, and 6-month Euribor increased by 3.24 percentage points, rising to 2.69%. At 31 December, the interest rate risk of 61.2% of the loans drawn down by Enefit Green was hedged with interest rate swap agreements.

After the reporting period, in January 2023, Enefit Green signed loan agreements of €325m in total with SEB and NIB. The amount of the loan raised from NIB is €100m and the loan term is 12 years. The amount of the loans raised from SEB is €225m and the loan term is seven years.

Dividend proposal

In coordination with the Supervisory Board, the Management Board proposes to distribute to shareholders €55.0m in dividends (0.208 euros per share) from earnings of previous periods in 2023, which is equivalent to 49.9% of group’s unaudited net profit in 2022.

Condensed consolidated interim income statement

Condensed consolidated interim statement of financial position

Further information:
Sven Kunsing
Head of Finance Communications
investor@enefitgreen.ee
https://enefitgreen.ee/en/investorile/

Enefit Green is one of the leading diversified renewable energy producers in the Baltic Sea area. The Company wind farms in Estonia and Lithuania, cogeneration plants in Estonia and Latvia, solar farms in Estonia and Poland, a pellet plant in Latvia and a hydroelectric plant in Estonia. In addition, the Company is developing several wind and solar farms in the mentioned countries and Finland. As of the end of 2021, the Company had a total installed electricity production capacity of 457 MW and a total installed heat production capacity of 81 MW. During 2022, the Company produced 1,118 GWh of electricity, 565 GWh of heat energy and 154 thousand tonnes of wood pellets.

Attachments

• EnefitGreen_interim_report_2022_eng
• EGR1T_2022_Presentation_ENG_