Audax renovables closes the first quarter

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

At the close 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, with an increase of 14% compared to the same quarter of 2017. 

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

• First, the prolonged attempt to optimize and improve the performance of the plants added to a greater use of wind energy has led to increased production and higher billing of the 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 an international level, production was in line with what was 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 exploitation costs, the result of the policy of spending containment and cost optimization, has made it possible to continue along this path. In this first quarter, costs decreased by 7%, while as regards financial charges, there was a reduction of 6% compared to the same period of 2017. The main reason for this decrease lies in the lower financial burden of project finance projects and to renegotiate the company's debt. The latter was then entirely canceled at the beginning of April this year as a consequence of the optimization of the project finance contract for the Hinojal park which - in turn - allowed other resources to be freed up 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 shared 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 was 110.1 million euros; this presupposes the 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, we would like to remind you 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 creation of 66MW of installed power and total investments of over 150 million dollars are expected.