The total operating revenues of the Electrica Group in 2017 amounted to 5.77 billion lei, which is an increase of 0.27% compared to 2016, the company said in a press release. Expenses with employees’ salaries and benefits decreased by 12 million lei or 1.8%, to 642 million lei, as a result of measures to optimize the Group’s activities, including payments for voluntary departures.

In 2017, the Electrica Group recorded a consolidated net profit of 172 million lei, down 63% from 2016.

Electrica’s Board of Directors will propose to the shareholders a gross dividend of lei 0.77237 per share. “The proposed dividend yield is 6.3%, taking into account the share price of Electrica on BVB on March 5, 2018”, the company informs.

Distribution

On the distribution segment, revenues increased by 7%, in the context of the increase of the distributed quantity by 1.7% for the three distribution operators within the group.

In 2017, Electrica Group distributed around 17.8 TWh (up 1.7% from 2016) to about 3.7 million users. Group distribution operators distributed around 40% of the electricity distributed nationally.

“In 2017, we made a record investment in the distribution infrastructure, totaling 736 million lei. We continue to focus on both increasing operational efficiency and improving the quality of the energy distribution service, “Electrica CEO Cătălin Stancu said.

Supply

In terms of supply, net revenues declined by 4.7%, mainly as a result of the 9.7% drop in the quantity delivered, but also due to the increase in the purchasing cost of power by 7.9% to 2.97 billion lei in 2017. Electrica expects “for the regulated market, the losses and unrealized gains in 2017 to be at least partially recovered in 2018”.

Electrica Furnizare has a market share of 19.05%. It is a market leader on the regulated market, with a market share of 40.30%, and on the competitive market has a market share of 11.67%, according to the ANRE report for the first ten months of 2017.

Investments of 900 million lei in 2018

For 2018, Electrica has planned investments of 900 million lei (approximately 193 million euros) to “substantiate long-term operational and financial performance”.

The 2018 budget proposal includes an individual net profit of 240 million lei, which will include dividends to be distributed by subsidiaries based on 2017 profits. “The consolidated net profit is 254 million lei, indicating that there are expectations that Group performance in 2018 to improve from 2017”, say company officials.

One factor contributing to this is the acquisition of the 22% minority shareholding previously held by Fondul Proprietatea in Electrica’s distribution and supply subsidiaries, which created the opportunity to fully retain the benefits generated by these subsidiaries for Electrica shareholders.