Audax renovables closes first quarter

Audax Renovables, the Group's company dedicated to the generation of energy from renewable sources, closed the first quarter of 2018 with a profit of 1.6 million euros, compared to 589 thousand euros achieved in the same period of the previous year. 

At the end of the first quarter of 2018, the net turnover amount increased by 7%, reaching 9.2 million euros. EBITDA rose to 6.4 million euros, an increase of 14% compared to the same quarter of 2017. 

The main elements that contributed to consolidate this improvement in results in the first three months of the year were at least three. Let's see them in detail.

• First, the prolonged attempt to optimize and improve the performance of the plants combined with a greater use of wind energy led to an increase in production and invoicing of 8% and 7% respectively. However, the selling price of energy in the Spanish market (pool) was 14% lower than in the previous period.
• Second, at the international level, production was in line with that achieved in the same period of 2017. In Poland, the revaluation of incentives linked to Green Certificates led to a 33% increase in turnover compared to the first quarter of a year ago.
• Third, the reduction in operating costs, resulting from the cost containment and cost optimization policy, has allowed us to continue on this path. In this first quarter, costs decreased by 7%, while financial charges decreased by 6% compared to the same period in 2017. The main reason for this decrease is the lower financial burden of the company's project finance and debt renegotiation projects. The latter was entirely cancelled at the beginning of April this year as a result of the optimization of the project finance contract of the Hinojal wind farm, which in turn freed up additional resources for Audax Renovables.

Of all the energy produced by Audax Renovables in these first three months of 2018, 75% of it was generated in Spain; the remaining 25% is divided between France (7%) and Poland (18%). The production of the parks in this period reached 114.2 GWh of power, compared to 105.3 GWh in the same period of 2017. 

The net financial debt at the end of the period considered is 110.1 million euros; this presupposes a reduction of 3.4 million euros compared to the end of the 2017 financial year and corresponds to the complete financing of the plants according to the project finance method. 

Finally, it is worth remembering that Audax Renovables participates - in partnership with local entities - in the development of the Toabré wind farm in Panama. Construction work officially started on May 10th: in this first phase of the project, the construction of 66MW of installed power and total investments of over 150 million dollars are expected.