(Alliance News) - The board of directors of Hera Spa on Tuesday unanimously approved the consolidated results for the first quarter of 2024, net profit rises to EUR153.3 million compared to 140.3 million as of March 31, 2023.

Net income attributable to group shareholders rises to EUR143.1 million compared to EUR128.2 million as of March 31, 2023.

In the first quarter, revenues were EUR3.28 billion, down significantly from EUR5.62 billion in the same period of 2023, mainly due to lower energy commodity prices and lower brokerage activities, as well as reduced opportunities related to energy efficiency incentives in residential buildings.

EBITDA as of March 31, 2024 rises to EUR417.1 million compared to EUR410.2 million in the first three months of 2023, "highlighting the resilience of the results with respect to the normalization of commodity prices," the company note says.

Orazio Iacono - CEO of Hera Group - said, "The solid results for the first quarter of 2024 highlight further growth always accompanied by Hera Group's usual focus on resilience, sustainability and innovation. Operating investments, amounting to about 160 million euros, have been directed at upgrading and making infrastructures even more efficient, to ensure quality and continuity of services and improve asset resilience."

"The activities to optimize the financial structure launched in 2023 allowed a decrease in the cost of medium- to long-term debt, generating significant savings in financial charges compared to the same period last year. The result is an increase of about 12 percent in net income attributable to shareholders, which rises to over EUR143 million," it continues.

"The group's financial strength is also fully confirmed, with the ratio of net debt to EBITDA standing at 2.7 times, an improvement over the value of a year ago and substantially in line with the figure reported on December 31, 2023," Iacono concluded.

The company's financial debt is EUR3.99 billion, up 4.2 percent from the end of 2023.

Hera on Tuesday trades in the red by 0.5 percent at EUR3.55 per share.

By Maurizio Carta, Alliance News reporter

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