REN records profit of EUR 121.3 MILLION

• EBITDA rises to EUR 521.5 million
• CAPEX reaches EUR 187.8 million
• Net debt down 4.4%
• Operating costs fall 10.4%

EBITDA rose 1.9%, net income decreased by 1.8% yoy, and recurrent income increased very slightly (0.4%). It is notable that all these figures exceeded the plan for 2013.

The performance of EBITDA is the stand-out result, which stood at EUR 521.5 million, and evolved positively despite being heavily penalized (EUR 29.3 million) by the decline of the electrical assets remuneration rate. The loss of revenue was more than offset by the reduced OPEX costs, the increase of the regulated assets base, and also by the recovery of interest payable to REN since April 2008, and the positive development of the tariff deviation interest.

OPEX stood at EUR 110.7 million, EUR 12.8 million less than the preceding year, and OPEX Core stood at EUR 95.3 million, down EUR 7.3 million.

CAPEX totalled EUR 187.8 million, down EUR 13.2 million from 2012 (-6.6%), reflecting the slowdown of the construction of new infrastructure and lower unit prices as a result of the recession in the construction market. The net financial profit worsened by EUR 6.2 million to negative EUR 142.2 million. This performance was penalized by the rise of gross debt, to ensure a higher degree of average liquidity. Nonetheless, the average cost of debt fell from 5.7% at the end of 2012 to 5.5% in 2013.
REN diversified its sources of funding during 2013 and lengthened the average maturity of its debt through a 7-year private placement (EUR 150 million), two bond issues (one 5-year issue of EUR 300 million and the other a 7-year issue of EUR 400 million), as well as signing contracts with CDB (EUR 400 million over an 8-year term) and with ICBC (EUR 160 million over a 5-year term).

The growth in EBITDA and net debt reduction resulted in an improvement of the Debt/EBITDA ratio from 4.9x in 2012 to 4.6x in 2013.

The three major rating agencies revised and maintained the outlook of REN to 'stable” since October. REN remains the Portuguese company with best overall rating from those three rating agencies.
The Board of Directors of REN will propose at the next General Meeting the payment of a dividend of 17.1 cents per share. “The 2013 financial year”, according to Rui Cartaxo, CEO of REN, 'which was essentially the most difficult of recent years, showed the company’s resilience in adverse climates through the stability of its results. The appreciation of the share price, especially over the last six months, bodes well for the sale of the final 11% of the share capital”.