By Sergio Goncalves and Susanna Twidale
LISBON/LONDON (Reuters) -Portugal’s EDP said on Thursday it plans to invest 12 billion euros ($14 billion) between 2026 and 2028, mainly to expand its renewable energy capacity with a focus on the U.S., but its shares fell as profit targets undershot expectations.
In its strategic plan through 2028, Portugal’s largest utility reiterated its recurring earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization target of around 4.9 billion euros for 2025, forecasting it at 4.9-5 billion euros in 2026 and about 5.2 billion by 2028.
It expects recurring net income of around 1.2 billion euros this year, between 1.2 billion and 1.3 billion euros in 2026, and roughly the same by 2028.
EDP shares dropped 6% in afternoon trading with analysts saying the targets were lower than their estimates.
JPMorgan analysts said that EBITDA and net income targets came in below their estimates, highlighting that they would be “achieved with larger net capex in networks” than it expected.
TAPPING INTO RISING POWER DEMAND SPURRED BY DATA CENTRES
EDP said 7.5 billion euros of the targeted 12 billion would be invested by its renewables unit EDP Renovaveis – the world’s fourth-largest wind energy producer – in wind, solar and battery energy storage systems, of which around 60% are in the United States.
EDPR’s capacity is expected to increase to 25 gigawatts by 2028 from 20 GW now.
EDP, which operates in 29 countries across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, said the new plan was designed “in a context of increased demand for electricity, notably supported by increased data centre capacity in the United States.
Finance chief Rui Teixeira told Reuters that renewables were uniquely positioned to benefit from data centre power demand since they can be built quickly, unlike nuclear, and can also offer long-term fixed power purchase agreements to companies, unlike gas plants whose costs are pegged to gas prices.
“Two-thirds of the new PPAs (power purchase agreements) that we signed in 2024, for example, were with the big tech companies,” he said in an interview.
Teixeira also said the company did not have any active plans for mergers or acquisitions.
Earlier this year, Reuters reported the company had initiated merger discussions with London-listed peer SSE, but that talks did not progress.
In the first nine months of 2025, EDP invested around 2.6 billion euros.
Recurring net profit in that period was 974 million euros.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Susanna Twidale in London. Editing by David Latona and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
