REN posts net results of 70.5 million euros in 3RD quarter

•EBITDA reaches 357.2M€

•Average cost of debt down to 3.4%

•Production of renewable energy covered 61% of the consumption

•For the first time since 1999, the Portuguese electrical system exported more energy than it imported, during the total of the first nine months of a year.

•All-time high recorded in the production of electricity in natural gas power plants

REN- Redes Energéticas Nacionais released today its results for the first nine months of 2016, showing a drop in the company's net results from €91.6M to €70.5M. This decrease is explained by the capital gains earned in 2015 from the sale of REN's holding in ENAGÁS.

The EBITDA was €357.2M, which was down 4.1%, explained by the sale of the ENAGÁS holding, despite the improvement of €0.8M in operating costs resulting from operating optimisation and efficiency. In Q3, the CAPEX was €73.4M and the average RAB €3.502M, representing a reduction of 0.9%. The Recurring Net Income rose from €93.3M to €96.4M.

In the first nine months of the year, REN once again, in line with expectations, presented a solid financial performance and a stable operating performance, with special note for the rise in Recurring Net Income and the reduction in Operating Costs. That operating and financial performance continues to be affected by the negative effect of the Energy Sector Extraordinary Contribution (CESE), which added up to 25.9M€ in the first nine months of the year.

On 7 October, REN proceeded to carry out a new instalment of debt issuance, in the amount of €200M, with maturity in February 2025. This issue had in view the optimisation of REN's financing sources, in conjunction with the improvement of its liquidity profile. This year, as well, the terms of the financing guaranteed by the Bank of China to REN were extended to 2021, and the maximum ceiling was raised to €250M, proof of the financial solidity of REN. Through these operations, REN was able to fully guarantee its financing needs through the end of 2020.

It is also worth pointing out the fact that in October, Standard & Poor's (S&P) reaffirmed its investment grade rating of the company (BBB-, with a positive outlook). REN thus saw its position reinforced as the Portuguese company with the highest rating given by the three largest rating agencies.

Between January and September, electrical energy consumption rose 0.3% year on year. This value was reduced to 0.4% when corrected for the effects of temperature and number of business days.

During that same period, renewable energy production handled 61% of the consumption, a high figure sustained by the water flows at dams (66% above average) and by wind farm production (9% above average). The foreign trade balance has remained on the export side over the first nine months, representing 12% of the domestic consumption in this period. This is the first year in which the domestic system has been an exporter since 1999.

In the natural gas market, the consumption at the end of September recorded a growth of 2.3% year on year, resulting from a large increase of 28% in the energy production segment, in conjunction with a 3.9% contraction in the conventional segment. In the natural gas production of electrical energy, on 6 September, REN recorded an all-time high power of 3344 MW in the production of electricity from natural gas, demonstrating the crucial role of the domestic natural gas infrastructures in guaranteeing the supply of consumption and the electrical sector, in particular.