PARIS (Reuters) -French power utility EDF on Monday again warned on its 2022 profit outlook, saying that wholesale energy price caps and lower nuclear output problems are likely to impact the group’s capability to achieve financial targets.
EDF now sees the impact from French energy price curbs on its 2022 earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) at around 10.2 billion euros, compared to roughly over 8 billion in a previous estimate.
The government, which owns over 80% of EDF, earlier this year increased the amount of energy EDF is forced to sell to its rivals at below-market prices with energy costs a main issue for voters ahead of presidential elections in April.
EDF on Monday said that a government decree, dated March 11, confirmed the utility would have to sell to rivals an additional 20 terawatt hours for 2022 for a total of 120 TWh. The increased volumes were first announced by the government in January.
EDF also reassessed the profit hit resulting from lower nuclear output, saying that based on 2022 forward prices on March 11, the EBITDA hit was now seen at approximately 16 billion euros.
EDF maintained its 2023 target for the ratio between net debt and EBITDA of around 3, but said this could be difficult to meet.
“The scale and variety of the risks the group is facing (…) and the analyses and works the group has to perform on the French nuclear fleet in relation to the stress corrosion phenomenon (…), are likely to impact the group’s capability to achieve these objectives,” EDF said.
“Moreover, in the current situation, the impacts of the Ukrainian conflict and associated geopolitical tensions on all kinds of risks are difficult to quantify,” it added.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel, editing by Jason Neely and Richard Lough)
